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PLAIN 


ARGUMENTATIVE  SERMON, 


OK 


THE    DOCTRINE    OP 


THE  HOLT  TRINITY. 


^    By  GEORGE  BURDER. 


MILTON,  N.  C. 

PRINTEn  BX  BENJTAMIN   GORY. 
1SS3. 


PREFACE! 


As  ideas  subversive  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  are  not  unfreqiiently  advanced  in  the 
pulpit;  and  as  this  doctrine  constitutes  a  promi- 
nent article  in  "  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,"  for  which  we  aie  exhorted  "earnestly 
to  contend;"  it  has  appeared  to  me,  that  I  may 
do  a  service  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  by  pub- 
lishing and  disseminating  the  following  very 
plain  and  instructive  discourse  on  that  doctrine. 

Many  plain  Christians,  who  have  scarcely 
any  book  but  their  Bibles,  are  much  bewildered 
'and  distressed  by  the  objections  which  they, 
sometimes  hear  raised  against  this  "  Great  mys- 
tery of  Godliness."  'I'o  such  this  Sermon  will 
supply  an  easy  and  effectual  solution  of  their 
difficulties.  Under  the  hope,  therefore,  that  it 
may  meet  the  smiles  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  it  is  humbly  dedicated  to  the  Church. 

A.  W.  CLOFTON. 


A  SERMON 

ON    THE    DOCTRINE    OF 

THE  HOLT  TRINITY. 


1  John  V.  7.  For  there  are  Three  that  bear  record  in  Heaven;  the  Father, 
the  Word,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  tiiese  three  are  One. 

ALL  religion  supposes  the  worship  of  a  G'  <);  an<l  theie- 
fore,  in  all  worship,  the  first  thing  to  be  considered  is,  xvho 
that  God  is;  or  what  sort  of  a  beiog  is  to  be  worshipped. 
The  Heathens  worshipped  a  great  many  gods;  as  tiany  as 
thirty  thousand  have  been  mentioned:  But  all  Christians 
admit  that  there  is  but  One  only,  the  living  and  true  G  id. 
Now  all  the  knowledge  we  have  of  Gnd  is  from  the  Scriptures. 
If  God  had  not  been  pleased  to  give  us  the  Bible,  we  should 
to  this  day  have  been  worshipping  idols,  as  the  former  inhab- 
itants of  this  country  did,  and  as  many  millions  of  Pagans 
now  do.  Reason,  alone,  never  yet  led  any  people  to  the 
right  knowledge  of  God,  nor  ever  will.  The  learned  Greeks 
and  wis»e  Romans  knew  no  more  of  God  than  the  savage  In- 
dians. The  knowledge  of  God  which  Noah  and  his  sons  had 
was  gradually  lost  and  corrupted.  But  God  made  himself 
known  in  a  particular  manner  to  Abraham,  and  to  his  pos- 
terity the  Jews:  among  whom  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
God  was  preserved  till  the  time  of  Christ,  and  now,  by  his 
Gospel,  this  knowledge  is  given  to  us,  and  to  all  who  re- 
ceive the  Scriptures  as  the  word  of  God, 

Now,  the  same  Scriptures  which  assure  us  there  is  but 
one  God,  speak  of  him  under  three  names  of  Father^  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost;  and  our  text  pi? inly  duclares  that  these  three 
are  one.  This  doctrine  is  generally  called  the  doctrine  of  the 
Triiiity,  which  signifies  Tri  Unity,  or  three  in  one.  This 
doctrine  has  been  thought,  by  most  Christians,  to  be  very 
plainly  revealed  in  the  word  of  God;  neveriheiesjs,  there  were 


[4] 

some  persons  of  old,  and  there  are  some  now,  who  dispute, 
or  deny  it;  and  these  people  are  called  ArianSf  or  Sncinians; 
and  some  of  them  now  call  themselves  Unitarians.  We  ought 
to  be  much  on  our  guard  against  tliosc  who  would  rob  us  of 
'*  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  and  of  which  this  u 
an  eminent  part.  For  you  will  please  to  observe,  that  those 
who  deny  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  seldom  stop  there;  they 
generally  deny  also  the  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  tha 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  heart,  so  leave  us  very  littla 
of  the  Gospel  to  believe.  Indeed,  many  who  begin  their 
upostacy  in  the  denial  of  the  Trinity,  complete  it  in  becom- 
ing downright  Inddels  and  Atheists.  As  a  right  notion  of 
God  is  connected  with  all  true  faith  and  holy  practice,  it  is  of 
great  consequence  for  us  to  be  well  established  in  this  doc- 
trine. It  shall,  theieSore,  be  our  present  business  to  prove, 
that, 

In  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead  there  are  three  divine  Persons. 

It  may  be  proper  to  remark,  that,  with  respect  to  this  doc- 
trine, it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  be  able  fully  to  eX" 
plain  it,  or  show  how  the  throe  divine  persons  subsist.  This 
is,  and  must  be,  a  mystery.  There  are  many  people,  in  this 
age  of  reason,  as  ihey  call  it,  who  dislike  and  reject  every 
tiling  mysterious;  but  this  arises  entirely  from  their  pride, 
Ihere  are  many  mysteries  in  nature:  we  are  mysteries  to 
ourselves.  We  know  little  of  the  nature  of  our  own  bodies, 
n»id  still  less  of  our  souls.  Is  it  any  wonder  then  that  we 
should  know  little  of  God,  or  that  the  divine  nature  should  b» 
mysterious  to  us?  Let  us  beware  of  pride,  especially  the  pride 
of  Miir  unilfistandiiigH.  This  pride  ruined  the  angels  who 
Itil!.  It  iuined  our  finst  parents;  and  it  will  ruin  us  eternal* 
Iv,  if  it  btt  (HtiiTered  to  prmail.  As  we  should  never  have 
known  any  thing  of  God  but  by  the  Bible,  lot  us  be  content 
to  take  the  Bible  account  of  God,  which  is,  indeed,  his  own 
account  of  himself.  And  let  us  remember  what  our  Saviour 
said  to  his  disciples,  when  he  discovered  the  workings  of 
pride  atunng  them,  Matt,  xviij.3.  Having  set  a  child  in  the 
inidsi  of  Ihfin,  he  said,  "  Verily  1  say  unto  you,  except  ye  be 
converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  ahall  not  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.''  A  little  child  is  obliged  to 
take  upon  trust  what  his  infant  capacity  cannot  yet  compre- 
hend; and  it  is  the  oflice  of  Christian  faith  to  take  God  at  his 
word. 


*- 


^ 


[5] 

I  would  also  remark,  that  in  our  reception  of  this  Scrip- 
ture doctrine,  we  are  nut  bound  to  ad  »pl,  the  mode  of  ei:j)res- 
sion  used  or  enforced  by  any  pnriicular  divines  or  churches. 
Some  good  men,  in  their  attempts  to  explain  the  dooriinp, 
have  rather  perplexed  it.  Some  good  men  have  said,  that 
*'  the  Fa!her  is  the  fountain  oC  Deity," — that"  he  communi- 
cated his  whole  essen^'e  to  the  Son," — that  *'  the  Son  is  en 
tirely  begotten  of  the  Father,"  and  that  he  is  **  very  God  of 
very  God."  As  these  expressions  are  only  private  interpre- 
tations of  a  Bible  truth,  we  are  at  liberty  to  admit  or  reject 
them,  as  they  appear  to  be  scriptural  or  nor. 

Now  let  us  proceed  to  a  brief  proof  of  the  doctrine  advanc- 
ed, viz.  In  the  Unity  of  the  Godhead  there  are  three  divine 
persons.  By  Godhead  we  mean  the  dixine  nature.  We  main- 
tain  the  Uiiity  ot  tl>e  Godhead;  that  there  is  but  one  Go'J; 
yet  we  assert,  as  our  text  d\)es,  that  thi^re  are  three  in  the 
God!»ead»  Father,  Son,  and  Huly  Ghost,  ai>d  that  these  three 
are  one,*  There  is  but  one  God.  It  is  impossible  there 
should  be  more.  Reason  itself  shews  that  ther^  cannot  be 
more  than  one  being,  who  'i8  first.  God  is  the  Jirst  cause  of 
all  being,  and  we  cannot  conceive  of  two  or  more  Jirst 
causes.  God  is  alno  a  self-sufficient  being;  he  existed  alone; 
he  can  do  every  thing  of  himself;  he  needs  not  the  help  of 
other  beingSi  '*^Now,  if  there  were  two  such  brings,  they 
cou'd  do  no  more  thaa  one  could  do;  if  they  could,  then  one 
could  not  be  selj-siifficient  and  alUsiifficient;  each  of  them 
could  not  be  G.id,  if  they  could  want  or  receive  any  help 
from  one  anotSier.  There  cannot,  therefor'^,  be  two  Gods; 
for  if  oije  is  aU-siifficientf  the  other  would  bt*.  rie^'diess  and 
useif'sp."  it  is  the  great  doctrine  of  Scripture,  that  there  is 
one  God,  Isa.  xlv.  5,  *' I  am  the  Lord,  a»d  there  is  none 
else;  theie  is  no  God  beside  me,"  Deuf.  vi.  4.  «'  Hear,  O 
Israel;  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord."  Mark  xii.  ^i'!; 
**  There  is  one  God;  and  there  is  non^  other  but  he."  J;>?r. 
xxiii.  24.  "Do  not  I  fill  heaven  and  earth,  saith  tlie  Lord.'* 
1  Rings  viii.  39.  "  For  thou,  even  thou  only,  knovvest  the 
hearts  of  all  the  children  of  Men."    This  is  the  God  alomgi 


•  Perliaps  you  will  be  told  that  this  verse  is  not  found  in  some  ancieai 
isjanusci-ipts  of  tlie  New  Testament,  but  has  been  added  by  the  Ti"initai-iaH&. 
But  we  are  assured  b\-  men  of  tije  fii-st  learning  and  credibility,  that  it  w^ 
found  in  the  most  ancient  copies:  and  whoever  examines^  will  fiiid  that  \h^ 
sense  of  the  chapter  isaat  s  .'mplete  witliout  it^  But  the  truth  of  iJje  ipGr- 
triae  4ofi» not  depewi  on  a^  sens.e».  ss  we  ehaU  giainl]^  grove., 
I* 


[63 

who  oaght  to  be  worshipped.  "  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord 
thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve.'* 

The  adversaries  of  this  doctrine  call  themselves  Unitari- 
anSf  by  which  they  mean  to  intimate  their  belief  of  only  one 
God,  and  insinuate  ihnt  we,  who  believe  the  Trinity,  admit 
of  more  than  ono  God.  But  we  d^eny  the  charge.  We  main- 
tain, as  strongly  as  they,  that  there  is  only  one  God;  and 
we  think  it  perfectly  consistent  with  this  belief  to  acknowl- 
edge three  Persons  in  the  Godhead.  We  allow  ihat  the  word 
persons  is  not  found  in  Scripfure,  and  may  convey  an  idea 
somewhat  too  gross.  But  this  is  owing  to  the  poverty  of  our 
language,  which  does  not  furnish  us  with  a  better  term.  And 
we  think  it  justifiable,  because  personal  properties  and  per- 
sonnl  acts  arc  ascribed  to  each  of  the  divine  tliree.  But  we 
contend  not  for  the  word,  but  the  thing.  It  is  enough  for  us 
to  say,  w  ith  the  text,  *'  there  are  Three  that  bear  record 
in  heaven,  the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Holt  Ghost." 

That  there  is  a  phirality  in  the  Deity  i»  evident  from  the 
Old  Testament.  This,  you  know,  was  written  in  Hebrew; 
and,  the  name  which  is  generally  translated  by  the  English 
word  God,  is  in  the  Hebrew  plural,  and  signifies  more  than 
one.  It  is  Elchim^  which  is  in  the  plural  number,  as  Gods 
would  be  in  English:  and  this  word  is  often  joined  with  the 
Hebrew  word  Jehovah,  which  is  translated  Lord;  and 
wbenevcryou  find  the  word  Lord  in  capital  letiersthus  (Lord) 
it  means  Jehovahf  a  name  which  tiignifies  the  essence  uf  God, 
*^  He  who  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  «ome,"  Now  there  is  a  pas- 
sage in  Dent.  vi.  4,  where  you  have  both  these  names,  and 
which  fully  proves  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  "Hear,  O 
Israel:  the  Lord  oar  God  \»  one  Lord."  If  the  word  Lord 
and  the  word  God  signified  just  the  same,  the  passage  would 
be  nensense,*  it  would  be  only  saying,  the  Lord  is  Lord,  or 
one  is  one:  But  the  meaning  is,  Jehovah,  our  Elohim,  our 
covenant  God,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  is  one  Jehovah.  He 
is  one  in  Essence,  though  three  in  person.  T!ie  Jews  are 
unwilling  to  own  that  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  names  of  God 
in  Hebrew,  but  it  is  eiitircly  owing  to  their  hatred  to  Jesus 
Christ.  If  any  are  converted  to  Christianity,  as  some  have 
been,  they  own  it  immediately.*     Thus  John  XereSt  a  con- 

•See  an  excellent  treatise,  entitled  the  Catholic  Dootrtne  of  a  Trinity, 
proved  by  above  an  liundred  short  :m<\  clear  \rprumcnts  in  the  Words  of 
Scripture,  by  Mr.  Jorm,  Uector  of  Pluckly,  &c.  priHted  for  Uirington. 


en 

verted  Jew,  about  70  years  ago,  when  he  published  his  rea* 
sons  for  becoming  a  Cbristian,  says,  "  The  Ci.ri&tians  con. 
fess  Jesu'j  to  be  God;  and  it  is  this  that  makes  us  louk  Uj)on 
the  Gospels  as  books  that  overturn  the  very  principles  oF  i  eis- 
gion,  the  truth  of  which  is  built  upon  this  article,  tho  Uhity 
of  God,    In  this  argument  lies  the  strength  of  what  you  ob- 
ject against  in  the  Christian  religion."     There  he  under  akes 
to  prove,  that  the  uni'y  of  God  is  not  such  as  he  once  under- 
stood it  to  be,  in  unity  of  Ferson,  but  of  Essence,  under  whirli 
more  persons  than  one  are  comprehended;  and  the  first  proof 
he  offers,  is  tliat  of  the  name  of  Eiohim.     Why  else,  says  he, 
is  that  frequent  mention  of  God  by  means  of  the  pluriil  num- 
ber; as  m  Gen.  i.  1,  where  the  word  Elohim,  which  is  render- 
ed Godf  is  of  the  plural  number,  though  annexed  to  a  verb  of 
the  singular  number;  which  demonstrates  that  there  are  sev- 
eral persons  partaking  of  the  same  divine  nature  and  es- 
sence." 

Thla  plurality  is  restricted  to  a  Trinity  of  persons,  namely 
three,  whose  names  we  have  in  the  text.     And  here  observe, 
that  the  names,  Father ,  Word,  or  Son,  and  Spirit,  are  not  in- 
tended to  describe  the  manner  in  which  the  three  divine  per- 
sons subsist,  but  the  manner  in  which  they  acf;  but  what  they 
are  in  themselves  (that  is  not  revealed)  not  what  they  are  to 
us,  according  to  the  respective  offices  which  they  have  been 
pleased  to  assume  in  the  redemption  of  man.    And  therefore, 
though  one  of  the  names  of  offices  may  seem  greater  than  the 
rest;  yet  this  daes  not  denote  that  the  person  who  bears  the 
name  is  greater  than  the  other.     The  name  of  the  Father 
may  seem  greater  than  that  of  the  Son,  or  of  the  Spirit:  and 
Christ  speaks  of  the  Father  as  greater  than  he;  and  the  Spi- 
rit as  well  as  the  Son  is  "  sent;"  but  as  these  are  names  of 
office,  and  not  of  essence,  they  only  describe  the  nature  of  the 
office  assumed,  which  may  be  greater  or  less;  but  as  to  the 
essence  there  is  no  difference  nor  inequality;  but  as  it  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  Athanasian  Creed — *'  In  this  Trinity,  none  is 
before  nor  after  other;  none  is  greater  or  less  than  another; 
but  the  whole  three  persons  are  co-eternal  together,  and  co- 
equal.    The  Godiiead  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  is  all  one:  the  glory  equal,  the  majesty  co-eter- 
nah" 

Our  further  proof  of  the  Trinity  shall  be  from  the  history 
•f  man's  creation — the  application  of  the  name  of  the  Deity 


[8] 

to  each  Divine  Person  distiuctljr— the  institutioa  of  baplismj 
and  the  ap  st  >I'cal  blessing:. 

In  the  history  of  man's  creation  we  find  these  words,  Gerr. 
i.  20,  •«  And  God  s^tid,  lot  ns  make  man  in  our  ima.-iji ,  alter 
OFR  lik-nesH."  Surely  this  exj  rcssinn  dvnotf'S  tiiai  tiitie  is 
a  pluriilify  of  persons  in  the  divine  nature,  or  why  .shoul<l  it 
be  us<  d:  Some  tt  II  us  it  is  only  an  arrt)mniodatii.n  to  the 
mode  of  speaking  us:d  by  kin^s,  who  in  their  puhlir  acts  say 
tve  and  «s.  But  this  is  ridiculous;  for  kings  had  no  exist- 
ence before  the  creation  of  man.  Besides,  kings  use  this 
phrase  out  of  modesty,  or  to  signify  the  C(»ncurreiice  of  their 
Council;  but  who  hath  known  the  mind  of  the  Loid,  or  N*ho 
hath  been  bis  counsellor?"  Rom.  xi.  34.  In  like  manner  we 
find  the  Lord  God  saying,  after  man  had  fallen^  G  m!,  iii.  22, 
*•*  Behold  the  man  «»  become  like  one  or  us."  Sonie  thi  ik 
this  was  spoken  ironically,  in  allusion  to  Satan's  jTomisc, 
when  he  tempted  our  first  parents  to  eat  of  the  forbidden  tree. 
**  Ye  shall  be  as  g(»ds,"  &r.  Others  think  it  refers  t«>  ihe  co« 
venant,  in  which  ojjc  of  the  divi-ie  persons  bad  engaged  ti 
become  man,  'v\  order  to  redeem  m«n.  Be  liiis  as  it  roay, 
the  expression  plainly  proves  a  |){urality,  such  as  i«  more 
plainly  expressed,  John  i.  1.  *^  In  Ihe  beginnin-];  was  the 
Word,"  (the  verv  nAine  used  f  v  Christ  in^  the  t<'Xt)  »«  and  the 
Word  was  ivUh  God,  and  the  Wokd  was  God.''     But  again> 

The  name  of  God  is  applied  to  each  of  the  divine  persons 
distinctly.  Tliat  the  Father  is  calKd  God  n^ed  not  be  prov- 
ed. Jesiis  Christ  is  also  calk-d  God  in  many  places  of  Scrip- 
ture. Tlic»mas  said  to  him.  John  xx.  2S,  ♦*  My  Lord,  and 
my  GoD.'*  St.  Paul  says,  Rom.  ix.  5,  *♦  He  is  God  over  all, 
blessed  for  ever.**  St.  John  saj  s„  i  Johti  v.  20,  **  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  True  Gmd,  and  eternal  lifr.'*  The  Psalmist 
says,  that  the  Israelites  in  the.  wilderness  '^^ tempted  and  pro. 
voked  TJiE  MOST  HIGH  God^;"  and  St.  P;ui!,  spenking  of  tlie 
same  thing,  says,  "they  tempted  Clirist;"  consequently,  he 
is  "  the  most  high  God,"^  Psalm  Ixxviii.  56,  and  I  Vur.  x.  9, 
Isaiah  had  a  v  sion^  concernii-g  wliich,.  he  says,  <»  M  Re  eyes- 
have  seen  the  King,  tlje  Lord  of  Hosis,"  l>aiah  vi.  6.  St, 
John,  speaking  of  (hat  vision,  siiys,  «*  ti»ese  things  said  Esa-- 
iafe,  when  lie  saw  his  (Chkist's.)  glory,  and  spake  of  him,'* 
John  xii.  41;  from  whence  it  follows,  that  Jesus  is  the  Lobd- 
of  Hosts.  And  let  it  be  caref(dly  observed,  that  the  HHuie 
Iaob])^,  or  Jeuovau*  wiiicb  signidcs  tUe-sseciice  o£  G<od^  ia 


never,  upon  any  occasion  given  to  a  creature.  Yet  this  name 
is  given  to  Jesus  Christy  as  in  the  text  last  mentioned,  and 
also  in  the  following,  Jer.  xxiii.  6.  "  This  is  the  name  where- 
by he  shall  be  called,  the  lAmHf  (that  is  Jehovah)  our  right- 
eousness." Now,  wlio  is  the  righteousness  of  believers? 
Every  Christian  knows,  that  "  Christ  is  made  unto  us— 
righteousness."  And  in  Isaiah  xhii.  **  I,  even  1,  am  the 
Lord,  and  besides  me  there  is  no  Saviour."  But  we  know 
who  alone  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  even  "  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesas  Chiist.  But  unless  he  were  God  as  well  as 
man  he  could  be  i^o  Saviour;  for  Jehovah  says  there  is  no 
Saviour  besides  himself.*  Passing  by  many  more  texts  for 
want  of  room,  we  shall  mention  but  one  more  in  proof  of 
our  Lord's  diviuity.  Our  Saviour  has  graciously  promised 
his  presence  with'  all  his  people  whenever  they  assemble  to- 
gether. See  Matt,  xviii.  20.  "  Where  two  or  three  are  ga-* 
?hercd  together  in  ray  name  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them." 
Now  how  is  it  possible  for  Christ  to  be  present  in  all  the 
thousatsds  of  places  where  Christians  are  assembled,  unless 
he  be  the  true  God? 

In  like  manner  we  might  shew,  that  the  peculiar  names  of 
the  Deity  are  given  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that,  therefore, 
he  also  is  a  Person,  and  a  divine  person.  One,  out  of  many, 
may  be  sufficient.  St.  Peter,  reproving  Annanias  for  the  lie 
he  had  told  respecting  his  substance,  saith,  Acts.  v.  3,  ''Why 
halh  Satan  JiUed  thine  heart  to  be  unto  the  Holt  Ghost?"  and 
in  the  next  verse,  he  adds, — *'  Thou  hast  not  lied  unto  men  hut 
unto  God.'*  This  is  a  most  plain  and  undeniable  proof  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  God.j 

The  ordinance  of  Christian  baptism  affords  another  proof 
of  the  Trinity.  In  the  baptism  of  our  Lord  himself,  a  voice 
from  heaven  said — "This  is  my  beloved  Sonj"  also  "  The 
Holy  Spirit  descended  visibly"  in  the  manner  and  form  of 

*  If  the  reader  wishes  to  see  more  prooft  of  this  kind,  let  him  consult 
the  following  places,  Isaiah  viii.  13,  14,  with  1  Peter  ii.  7,  8.  Is.  xliv.  6. 
with  Rev.  xxii.  13.  Luke  i.  76,  with  Matt,  xi,  10.  2  Cor.  v,  19.  John  14. 
11.  Isaiah  ix.  6.  Rev,  i.  8.  1  Kings  viii.  39.  with  Rev.  ii.  23.  And  as  to 
those  places  in  which  Christ  saith,  The  Father  is  greater  than  I,  &c,  they 
are  understood  as  his  human  nature  and  office,  or,  as  the  creed  expresses 
it,  "inferior  to  the  Father  as  touching  his  manhood." 

f  Other  proofs  may  be  found  in  Acts  siii,  2,  4,  2  Tim  iii,  16  compared 
with  2  Pet.  i.  21. 1  Cor.  iii,  16,  with  1  Cor.  vi,  19,  1  Cor.  ii.  11, 14.  Psalms 
CKxxiz.  7, 


[10]        ^ 

a  dove,  "  li^litinj*  upon  him,"  Matt.  ili.  16.  Here  was  the 
Trinity.  The  Father  testifieth  to  ihe  S(  n,  and  the  Spirit 
descended  upon  him.  Hence,  the  primitive  Christians  used 
the  sayiiij?,  to  any  \^ho  doubted  the  truth  of  this  d«)ctrine, 
*'  Go  to  Jordan,  and  you  will  see  the  Trinity."  Plainer  still 
is  this  truth  from  the  form  of  words  appointed  to  be  used  in 
Christian  baptism  —Baptise  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Gh  'st.  This  is  an  ordi- 
nance of  initiation;  it  stands  as  it  were  at  the  threshold  of 
Christianity;  so  that  in  taking  upon  us  this  distinguished 
badge  of  the  Christian  profession,  we  avow  this  great  doc- 
trine. We  are  baptized  into  the  name  of  each  divine  Per- 
son, that  is,  by  the  authority  of  each,  and  into  the  faithfiv or > 
ship,  and  profession  of  each  equally  and  alike,  as  the  One  God 
of  the  Christian  religion.  Hereby  we  profess  the  Trinity, 
that  is,  one  God  in  three  Persons,  in  opposition  to  all  false 
gods  and  false  worship,  and  thereby  dedicate  ourselves  to 
them,  according  to  their  personal  relations;  to  the  Father,  as 
our  Creator,  and  as  reco<iciled  in  Christ;  to  Chnst  as  our  re- 
deemer, to  deliver  us  from  the  guilt  and  power  of  sinj  and  to 
the  Holy  Spiritf  to  teach,  comfort,  and  sanctity  us.  This  is 
a  kind  of  proof  of  the  doctrine  suited  to  the  weakest  capacity. 
Kach  of  the  sacred  Three  is  mentioned  distinctly,  and  by 
name,  which  certainly  implies  a  distinction  of  persons;  yet 
they  are  all  united  in  the  same  ordinance  of  baptism,  which 
shews  their  equality  and  unity.  So  that  all  who  would  not 
renounce  that  sacred  ordinance,  may  see  ib  it  a  full,  clear 
and  satisfactory  proof  of  the  Trinity. 

Much  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Apostolical  benedic- 
tion, 2  Cor.  xiii.  14.  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
be  with  you  all.  Amen."  In  these  words  St.  Paul  prayed 
for  the  Corinthians,  and  in  the  same  words  almost  all  Chris- 
tian ministers  pray  for  their  people  at  the  close  of  every  pub- 
lic service.  It  is  a  kind  of  prayer  to  each  divine  person 
singly,  expressing  a  desire  that  the  people  may  partake  of 
the  grace  of  Christ,  who  is  "full  of  grace,"  tlirtugh  whose 
mediation  we  are  reconciled  tn  God — that  they  may  also 
enjoy  the  love  of  God,  namely,  of  God  the  Father,  which  is 
the  source  of  «)ur  whole  salvation,  manifested  in  the  gift  of 
his  Son,  his  Spirit,  and  his  Word — and,  finally,  that  they 
may  pattake  of  the  Holy  Ghost|  as  all  real  Christians  do  in 


nil] 

his  application  to  their  souls  of  all  the  blessings  of  salvation, 
proteedm.a:  from  the  Father,  and  flowing  to  us  through  the 
Son,  And  thus  are  we  continually  reminded  of  this  great 
truth,  and  led  also  to  make  a  practical  us';  of  it,  in  seeking 
from  eac  h  of  the  divine  persons  the  peculiar  blessings  that 
each,  in  the  economy  of  the  covenant,  has  undertaken  to  be- 
stow. 

Application. — From  what  has  been  said,  however  brief- 
ly, it  IS  sufficiently  evident,  that  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
is  a  scriptural  doctrine;  and  as  such  we  are  bound  to  receive 
it,  unless  we  renounce  our  Bibles.  It  is  true,  that  it  is  a  sub- 
lime and  mysterious  doitiirit-;  yet  tiiere  is  nothing  at  all  in 
it  contrary  to  reason.  Some  men  make  a  great  outcry  against 
it.  They  tell  us  it  is  absolutely  impossible  that  there  should 
le  but  one,  and  that  the  Trinitarians  must  believe  there  are 
three  Gods.  In  answer  to  this  we  say,  we  do  act  attirm  that 
the  three  are  one,  in  the  same  sense  that  they  are  three.  They 
are  three  in  one  reepect,  one  in  another.  We  say  they  are 
three  in  person;  one  in  essence.  We  affirm  that  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Gliost,  are  not  three  Gods,  but  one  God.  We 
have  abundanMy  proved  from  Scripture,  that  there  are  Three 
to  whom  divine  names  are  given,  divine  attributes  ascribed, 
and  divine  offices  assigned;  and  we  affirm,  with  our  text,  and 
according  to  the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture,  and  the  voice  of 
reason  too,  that  they  are  three  in  one.  And  what  is  there 
in  all  this  absurd  or  coiitradiccory?  Were  we  to  affirm  that 
they  are  one,  in  the  same  respect  as  they  are  three,  it  would, 
no  doubt,  be  a  contradiction  ui  terms;  we  say  not  tliatthree 
person^  are  one  person,  or  three  Gods  are  one  God;  but  we 
say  that  the  three  pers^^ns  are  one  God.  This  is  revealed, 
therefore  ^e  beljeve  it;  and  though  we  cannot  fully  coippre- 
hend  it,  we  think  it  becomes  such  weak  and  fallible  creatures 
as  ourselves  humbly  to  receive  it,  with  other  truths,  as  the 
word  of  God,  and  not  of  raaii. 

But  It  is  by  no  means  enough  mei-ely  to  assent  to  the  doc- 
trine; we  ought  to  make  a  practical  use  of  it.  It  is  far  from 
being  a  matter  of  speculation;  it  is  a  branch  of  our  "  most  ho- 
ly faith."  We  should  be  coocerned  not  to  hold  this,  or  any 
other  truth,  in  unrighteousness:  and  no  doctrine,  however 
true  and  important,  will  avail  us,  without  an  experience  of 
its  sanctifying  power  on  our  hearts. 


[IS] 

Let  US  be  concerned  then,  as  perishing  sinners,  to  apply  to 
each  of  the  divine  persons:  to  the  father,  for  the  pardon  of 
our  sins  throngh  his  infinite  love  and  free  mercy;  to  the  Son, 
for  an  interest  in  his  blood,  righteousness  and  intercession; 
and  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  his  illuminating,  sanctifying, 
quickening,  and  comforting  influences. 

Let  us  adore  and  praise  the  eternal  Three;  the  Father  for 
his  electing  love,  and  the  unspeakable  gift  of  that  Iov«,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  his  only  begotten  Son.  Let  us  adore  and 
praise  the  dear^  Redeemer,  ascribing  blessing,  and  honour, 
and  giory,  and  praise,  to  him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood.  Let  us  adore  and  praise  the 
Holy  Spirit  for  his  gracious  influences,  accompanying  the 
w«rd  of  truth,  whereby  we  knew  ourselves,  and  felt  the  pow- 
er of  the  Gospel  to  our  salvation.  Thus  shall  we  reeemble 
the  blessed  angels,  who  are  incessantly  praising  the  glorious 
Trinity,  and  crying,  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Loid  God  Almigh- 
ty, which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come." 

We  shall  close  the  whole  with  that  excellent  Collect  used 
by  the  Church  of  England  on  Trinity  Sunday. 

"  Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  who  hast  given  unto  us^ 
thy  servants,  grace,  by  the  ccfjnfession  of  a  true  faith,  to  ac- 
knowledge the  glory  of  the  eternal  Trinity,  and  in  the  pow- 
er f>f  the  divine  Majesty  to  worship  the  Unity;  v^lMiseech 
thW  vhat  thou  wouldst  keep  us  stedfast  in  this  faith,  and 
evermore  defend  us  front  all  adversaries,*  \nfl)p  livest  and 
retgn/3st  Oue  God,  world  v^ithout  end.;  AAm^n.'^ 


^^.^  .^ 


DELIVERED   IN  THE 


C/tA/ 


BAPTIST  CHURCH  AT  RAUBIGHi 


DURING  THE   SESSION   OF   THE  LEGISLALURE, 


ON  MONDAY  EVENING,  NOVEMBER  30,  1829, 


..juM^ 


In  feiLpAanaUon  oi  tl\e  ^^vrs,  and  in  defence  of 
tVift  Trinei^les  oi  IVie  Associated  ^ethodisis) 


B?  l^BE  REV.  TVILUAIVE  W- 


i^uhlishedby  the. request  of  many  who  heard  it,  and  dedicated  to  all  thosfi 
j^iend^  to  the  right  of  suffrage  and  to  dvil  and  religious  freedoijii. 


^ALEIGBfJ 

PRINTED    BY    LAWRENCE    &   titMkti 
Printers  to  the  State, 

1830 


■1  » 


h 


t,Y 


PREFACE. 

T»  the  civil  cdhtmuniiff  in  general,  and  tht  people  called  Methodisla  in  parti cuioj;. 

That  which  is  good  fears  nothing  from  investigation,  but  has  eveiv  thing  to  hope 
for  from  it,  invitt-s  i',  a'  d  chf  evfufly  awaits  the  result;  while  that  which  is  evil  frarsit, 
bec:iuse  it  mtist  suffer  thereby. 

The  subject  proposed  for  investigation  in  the  following  pages,  is  important  to  human 
happiness,  as  a  reference  to  the  history  of  onr  rare,  through  past  ag<s,  will  shew: 
we  iTieun  i  ccifsiasiical  government.*  Let  no  i'Uelliy:ej|t  citizen  or  statesman  then 
has  11)  turn  auay  from  it,  without  a  patjgnt  reading,  frmn  a  belief  that  it  belongs  to 
the  unimportant  jargon  of  sectariarf»M^%noi^et^  elligent  Methodists  spurn  it, 
eithir  from  hasty  resentment  aganst  tner.iuuior,  or  t'e  subject  of  investigation.  As 
vir'.iioos  intelligencies,  ouratiachment  to  objects  becomes  more  pernianent  and  phas- 
ing n  proportion  as  the  light  of  truth  shines,  and  shews  the  exc*  lienor  of  iho-se  ob- 
jects The  suhjefct  of  investigation  in  these  pages  is  the  genius  of  the  Methodist  Efjis- 
copUi  Church  Government,  (which  is  purely  an  affair  of  human  regulation  ")  There  is 
no  difference  among  us,  as  Methodists,  on  any  other  point  If,  then,  our  church  go. 
ver  >ment  will  bear  the  test  of  sciutiny  and  the  sanc'ion  of  truti:,  it  will  more  highly 
merit  our  adlurence  a'ld  our  love;  if  not,  it  is  a  duty  we  owe  to  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity, as  Americans,  as.  Methodists  and  (Christians,  to  model  it  anew,  and  give  it  a  ch.i* 
racter  striciiv  in  accordance  with  intelligence,  brotherly  equality,  and  the  liberality  of 
our  Dwn  civil  government.  The  ecclesiastical  governments  in  the  United  State?  must 
ineiiiably  exert  an  immense  influence  over  the  civil  destinies  of  this  country.  It  is 
highl\  important,  then,  'o  the  hajjpiness  of  these  United  States,  that  the  genius  and 
character  «if  all  ecclesias  ical  governments  should  inspire  in  thei*-  adherents  a  love  for 
the  liberal  character  of  our  civil  government  It  seems  difficult  to  imagine  how  an  ene- 
my to  the  right  of  suffrage  in  church,  can  consistently  admire  it  in  State,  and  it  isrea- 
s  liable  to  suppii.se  that  he  who  claims  the  right  of  dictation  over  us  as  Christians,  would 
exerc  se  the  s,t">e  ri   hioserus  as  citizens,  if  his  power  would  allow  it. 

It  is  not  em  ugh  for  those  opp'Sed  to  free  suffVjige  to  tell  us,  that,  as  priests,  thej  are 
di^meiy  atilhorised  to  h  gislate  and  expound  A  priesthood  was  accessary  to  the  cru- 
CiK\ion  of  'he  the  ^Oll  of  God,  and  it  ever  opposed  most  'bitterly  any  attempt  to  cur,, 
tail  its  power  and  iiifluence  To  reduce  to  proper  limi's  such  power  and  influence, 
by  intrt/dii  ng  i!>c  ugh  of  suffrage  among  the  Methodist  people,  is  the  object  of  thi* 
etsay,  and  of  the  reformation  now  attempted  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  ChuTcb. 


)l?ELi.ow-GiTizENS  AND  Gentlemen. — I  hopc  jou  /do  Hot  coMs'ider  me 
so  wt'dk,  as  to  suppose  that  1  cjmiil  involve  a  coiigit'g'tioft  possessing  jour 
intelligence  in  a  sectarian  controversy'  if  I  would;  and  i  humblj  trust  jou 
do  not  think  me  soinconsitent  wuh  my  own   claims  to  the  right  of  fret>  un- 
fettered investigation  of  all  points  pertaining   to    the  civil  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal pnlic}'   of  this   country,  as  to  imagine  I  wou!d   involve  you  in  su.  h  a 
controversy,  if  I  could:  for  the  spirit  of  seciaiianism  is  alike  at  variance 
Wirh  good  sense  and  good  feeling      But  whaifvc  your  aversion  to  stn   •li- 
ani>m  may  be,  (a'ul  i  am   persuaded  it  cannot  be  greater   than  my  <>wt,,) 
nothing  that  is  imporcant    to  the   moral   energies   of  this  country,   unci  of 
course  to  the  civil  qaiet,    and   permanent  prosperity  of  these  happv  S  aies, 
can  De  uninteresting  to  you,  as  citizens  asul  patnois;  and  if,  upon  exarai^a- 
tion,  it  shall  appear  tliat  any  principle  or  system  clad  in  ecclesiastical  habil- 
iments, exists  in  this  country,  whiih  is    foiminabe  lo  ih*"  moral  energies  of 
the  commuinity,  and  of  course  to  the  civil  quiet,  afnd  permanent  prosperity 
of  thesevStutes;  lor  that  very  reason  such  a  piincip'e   or  system  beti.ines  a 
hundred    fold    more   frightful    to   every    sagacious  fiiend  of    (he   common- 
wealth; because   our  Constiiuii^in  distllims   the  rignt  of  tnrerlerente  in  «II 
ecciesiaslic.al  matiers,  at  least  in  ilieir  im  ipn-nt  stages.     H'  iice   it  is  that 
such  systems  must  remain    secure   in  this  country,  until    their    formidable 
characters  shall  be  felt   by  overt  acts  upon    the  quiet  and   prosperity  of  the 
cviuniry.     And  atthougii  the  artifice  of  aspiring  ecclesiasticks  disclaims  any 
rebcmb'ance  bevveen   church  and   State  governments;  vet  it  is  well  known 
to  you    h.tt  in  'lil  ages  and  countries  ihej  have  exerted  a  povvnju!  influf !!■  e 
over  ea^h   other;  and,   wlien   they  h  -ve  contlitted,   the  sw<ird  has  often  de- 
cided  the  strife.     We   are  of  opinion   that  they  are  both  of  s.milar  orig.n; 
and  their  object  should  be,  the  happiness  of  society,  whith   essentiallv  de- 
pends on   securing  the  equal  rights  of  ail   its  members:  we  are  persnaiisd 
that  the  same  reasoning  which  will  prove  a  civii  despotism  wrong   wi*!  aUo 
apply  to  an  ecclesiastical  despotism.     If  the  former  tends  to  the  arrogance 
and  tyranny  of  men  in   power,   so   does  the  latter;  if  a  civil   vassalage   is 
debasing,    an    ecclesiastical  vassalage  is  still  more  so.     The  slave  of  cuil 
power,  however  debased  by  oppression,  is  still  accessible;  you  may  address 
his  understanding  about  his  country,  or  the  good  or  bad  qualities  of  his  go- 
verqment,  or  its  rulers;  but  not  so  with  an  ecdesiasncal  vassal  of  the  same 
intelleciual  grade:    blindly  believing  in  the  infallibility  of  his  own  religion, 
his  judgment  is  closed  against  all  investigation;  his  religinus  teachers  have 
tauiiht  him  that  his  church  is  the   only  right  one  in    the  wond;  its  govern- 
ment is   of  divine  aUihoritjr;  therefore  no   reasoning  is  admissible;  and  his 
masters,  under  the  name  of  ministers,  however  rash,  arrogant  or  ignorant, 
arv  the  infallible  favorites  of  Heaven.     Yuu  may  scru'lfiize  the  talenis  and 
character  of  any,  or  all  of  his  civil  officers;  you  may  abuse  his  Governor  or 
President,  even  in  the  public  prints;  all  this  is  admissible,  because  his  civil 
oflScers  can  do  wr;oiig;  but  one   whisper  against  his  ecclesiastical  masf.ers, 
(u"derthe  name  of  ministers,)  or  any  scrutiny  into  their  motives  or  govern- 
ment is  unpardonable  sacrilege.     We   d(»   not  say  that  all    who  are  in  ihe 
p:ile  of  churches,  having  a  government  despostic  in  its  nature,  are  thus  de- 
based; for  those,  who   nn»ve  under   the  ilnection  of  their  own  understand- 
ings, and  make  their  feelings  subservient  to  their  reasons,  do  not  easily 


v^ 


/?•>••> 


<^\rer  in  this  way;  but  those  who  are  wielded  by  tlieir  feelings  and  preju-. 
diies  ai»n:e,  may  be  thus  debased  by  an  arrogant  ministry,  and  rendered 
forniuhibie  to  every  species  i;f  oppcisition. 

If  tlien  we  disclose  tuyour  view  a  powerful  ecclesiastical  government  ex- 
isting in  this  country,  o(  a  highly  despolical  character,  it  is  not  to  excite 
your  displeasure  agaicist  those  who  wield  it  at  present,  or  iigainst  those  who 
are  within  ihe  scope  ol  its  powers;  but  that  we  may  obtain  y<iur  aid  and 
goi'd  wishes  in  i>s  modification  and  control  in  a  consiitutional  way,  by  tho 
SOvtM-eign  force  of  public  sentiment  and  influence. 

We  do  siiuerely  b  lieve  that  d-in»j.Tous  powers  are  exercised  by  the  ru- 
lers of  »he  VIeihodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  that  the  -piiit  of  their  discip* 
line,  :iiid  genious  of  their  government,  have  an  anti  republican  tendency. 
To  .  tfect  a  refor. nation  oi  ilieii  church  government  and  imp.irt  to  it  liberal 
features  is  the  (ause  of  (he  vast  exiitenieni  fio'.v  pievailing  among  almost 
half  a  million  ot  people  in  th*-  United  JSiates  called  Mrthodists.  Then  to 
the  Saw  iind  the  testimony.  There  art  among  the  members  of  (he  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  three  great  departments.  Ut,  the  laity  or  people,  com- 
prising more  than  (our  hundred  thousand  peison^;  Snd,  the  local  preachers* 
in  number  between  live  and  st^ven  ihousanJ;  3rd,  the  itinerant  preachers, 
so  ci'ied,  in  number  some  more  than  fourteen  hundied.  In  these  last  are 
concentrated,  unquestionably,  all  the  legisla''ve  powers  of  the  whole 
church;  and  we  diink.  upon  examination,  it  will  be  found  ihcy  possess  all 
the  judirial  and  executive  power  also.  The  Gentrai  tlonlVrence.  which 
is  a  Congress  of  itinerent  Methodist  pr'^.tJicrs  esi.lusively  is  the  only 
legislative  assembly  belonging  to  the  Methodi>i  Kpiscopal  Church.  The 
following  extract  is  laketl  literally  from  their  discipline  for  1824,  commenc- 
Id'i  v.  I'h  the  19ih  page: 

"  QucsiioD  2nd.  Who  shall  compose  the  General  Conference,  and  what 
are  ihf  powers  and  regulations  beioiiging  to  it? 

"  Answer  1st.  The  General  Conference  shall  be  composed  of  one  mem- 
ber for  every  seven  members  of  the  'Vnniial  Conference,  to  be  appointed  by 
senority  or  choice,  at  the  discretion  of  each  Annual  Conference;  yet  so 
that  SU(  h  representatives  shall  have  (ravelled  at  least  four  full  calendar 
years,  trotn  the  time  that  they  were  received  on  trial  by  the  Annual  Con- 
ference, and  are  in  full  connexion  at  Ihe  time  of  holding  the  Conference. 

'•  Sec.  5th.  The  General  Conference  shall  have  full  power  to  makt-  rules 
and  regulation*  for  our  church,  under  the  following  iiinitations  and  restric- 
tions, viz.  Restriction  Ist.  'I'he  General  Conference  shall  not  revoke, 
alter  or  change  our  Ariticles  of  Religion  nor  establish  any  new  standards 
or  rules  of  doctrine,  contrary  to  our  present  existing  or  established  stand- 
ards of  doririne  4th  Restriction.  They  shall  not  revoke  or  change  the 
General  Rules  of  our  United  Societies  5th  Restriction  They  shall  not 
do  awav  the  privileges  ol  our  ministers  or  preachers  of  trial  by  a  commit- 
tee, and  of  an  appeal;  neither  shall  they  do  away  the  privileges  of  our 
members  of  trial  before  the  Society,  or  by  a  committee,  and  of  .in  appeal  " 
6th  Up^friclion  Af'er  some  reference  to  the  book  concern,  the  wln.je  is 
wou'ul  up  with  the  following:  "  nevertheless,  that  upon  the  joint  recommen- 
dation of  all  the  Annual  C  inferences,  then  a  majority  ol  tlu-  General  C^m- 
ferenre  su»  ci'»"lin2:.  «hall  suffice  to  al''r  any  of  (  ,i'  above  re.^trictinns  "  It 
shall  Hiiflire  to  ii-  r  it  <  hange  our  A'  irli-»  ol  Relii^ioii,  and  lo  esLtbli^h  any 
•iievv  standardh  or  Joules  of  J>pctrine;  it  shall  suHice  to  revoke  or  change  the 


>. 


treneral  Rules  of  our  tJnited  Societies;  it  shall  suffice  to  t!o  away  Uie  riglit 
of  trial  as  ubove  sp;  cified.  and  the  right  of  appeal.  In  a  word,  a  oiajmity 
of  two  thirds  of  the  General  Conference,  although  there  is  not  one  single 
lay  member  or  local  preacher  there  represented,  can  blot  out  every  thing 
that  constitutes  the  visible  existence  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Every  fourth  year  an  election  to  the  General  Conference  of  the  fifih> 
sixth  or  seventh  travelling  preacher,  is  made  by  traveling  preachers  on'.y,. 
and  instead  of  the  delegates  legislating  for  those  who  elect  them  only,  they 
legislate  for  the  local  ministry  and  lay  members,  not  one  of  whom  is  repre- 
sented in  that  Conference;  and  not  content  lo  change  our  rules  or  laws, 
which  are  simply  of  human  devising,  they  must  change  our  Articles  ol" 
Religion,  and  establish  new  standards  of  doctrine  if  ihey  think  proper. 
Read  those  Articles  ot  religion,  commencing  with  tlie  7'h,  and  i  ( ludmg 
the  18th  page  of  the  Discipline.  Article  the  5ih  maintains  the  sufficiency 
of  the  scriptures  for  the  puiposes  of  salvation,  &c.  i'his  they  may  also 
deny  without  the  aid  of  their  expoundings.  They  may  also  increase  or 
diminish  the  number  of  Canonical  Books,  or  deny  them  en  masse  Article 
rth  maintains  original  sin.  This  they  may  deny,  and  introduce  the  im- 
maculate state  of  infants.  Article  the  8(h  maintains  the  doc^rinft  of  IVee 
will.  Tliis  they  may  also  change,  and  introduce  he  doctrine  of  fate,  aiid 
totally  do  away  man's  accountability.  Article  the  24th  maintains  that 
christian  men's  goods  are  not  common  They  clain\  (he  right  to  change  this 
also,  and  to  proclaim  a  community  of  goods  of  course.  Is  not  here 
an  open  field  for  havock?  Here  are  legislative  claims  indeed!  Who 
in  his  senses  can  read  them,  and  know  thai  hundreds  of  itinerant 
Methodist  preachers  are  now  emphiyed  in  every  influential  way  within  their 
pov/er,  to  reconcile  many  millions  of  Americans  to  these  dogmas  and. 
have  actually  succeeded  in  reconciling  so  many  hundri'ds  of  ihousands  to 
those  high  claims,  that  many  men  ol  the  first  standing  in  society  have  suf- 
fered all  the  ecclesiastical  pains  and  penalties  that  the  civil  law  would  al- 
low, merely  for  questioning  these  claims?  Who  that  knows  any  thing  of 
human  nature  can  know  this,  and  recollect  the  bloody  tragedies  which  have 
originated  from  the  same  causes  in  past  ages,  without  soul  shivering  ap- 
prehensions? Should  any  one  deny  the  accuracy  of  these  comments,  let 
him  read  the  third  section  of  the  Discipline,  commencing  on  the  19th  page; 
he  will  there  see  that  the  Genera!  Conference  is  composed  exclusively  of 
travelling  preachers;  and  although  they  seem  to  limit  themselves  (which  ia 
its  own  nature  is  abi^urd)  by  six  articles,  they  became  wtary  of  those  lim- 
itations before  they  were  done  ivriting  them,  and  wound  uj)  with  a  sweeping 
jieverthelesa  • 

The  next  point  that  comes  in  review,  is  the  judicial  power,  which  is  also 
claimed  and  exercised  by  the  travelling  preachers,  as  \v\[\  appear  by  re- 
ference to  the  original  paragraph  contained  in  (he  report  of  the  last  General 
Conference  in  answer  to  the  petition  st?nt  up  from  the  first  Baltimore  Con- 
vention, praying  a  redress  of  grievances  and  a  modificatior.  of  their  govern- 
ment, which  will  be  found  at  large,  if  my  memory  serves  me,  in  the  Christian 
Advocate  of  June  20th.  1828,  and  is  as  tollows:  After  denying  the  right  of 
the  local  ministry  and  lay  membership  to  representation  in  the  law  making 
department  of  the  Church,  they  add:  "  of  these  also,  to  wit:  of  Gospel  doc- 
trines, ordinances  and  moral  discipline,  we  do  t«elieve  tliit  the  divmely 
instituted  miaistry  are  tlje  divinely  .inthoriscd  expounders;  and  that  the 


duty  of  maintaining  in  its  purrty,  and  (if  not  perraiting  our  ministra*ions 
in  the-e  respei'ts  to  be  "lU'i)  II it.uivcly  i<»ii.ioilt>'l  u>  «»t!ir.s,  »!oes  n^m.  ujM»a 
Us  with  the  power  of  a  moral  obligation,  in  'he  due  disJiaige  ol  vvintii  -ur 
eonsriences  are  involved  " 

Here,  in  answer  to  the  prayer  of  the  Conveniidn  for  a  red!P>.v  t>f  «iiev- 
ances,  and  a  modification  of  their  government,  ih^}',  as  the  '  fiivu.ely  insti- 
tuted ministry,"  profess  to  be  "  the  divinely  imlliorised  expound-rs,  *>i  tios- 
pel  doctrines,"  &c.  and  say  in  behalf  ol  iiifinselves, 'iien  in  I  i 't't-nce, 
that  it  "  rests  upon  them,  wiih  the  pnwer  nf  moral  obligmioii,"  •  ».',  .o  .-uder 
their  "  ministrations  to-be  authoritatively  rootrolled" — by  whoii.?  hy  _)i>u 
petitioners,  you  local  preachers  arid  laymen.  If  we  are  to  Inlieve  »hi-iii.  thej 
nave  a  right  to  judge,  not  only  of  laws,  but  ot  doctrines,  and  tha!  by  divine 
authorify.  Do  these  claims  befi'  the  19h  cen  urv?  Are  thev  in  accord- 
ance with  any  thing  like  governnien:,  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  on  tJus  conii- 
nent?  I  mast  have  ad^iitioual  faith  before  I  ci>n  believe  that  an  ap|;oiii;ment 
from  a  Methodist  bishop,  and  a  cicuit  asjigneil,  atul  thf  tiile  li.neiant 
Preacher,  make  a  man  a  divine  expounder  of  Gospel  doctrines,  whether  he 
§an  read  a  chapter  grarefuMy,  or  parse  a  seii'ence  grammatically  or  not; 
and  what  heaps  mountains  on  my  faiih  is,  that  he  should  lose  those  ex- 
pounding powers  so  soon  as  he  finds  a  fair  partner  arid  takes  a  location;  but, 
should  he  forsooth  b*'  left  al«»ne,  he  has  only  to  get  another  appointment 
from  a  Methodist  hi»hop,  anci  his  expounding  powers  return  .again.  Oii! 
what  a  magic  working,  convenient,  pleasant,  paiidul  ihiiig  this  Methodist 
Episcopal  itineracy  l^!  But,  after  all,  like  the  incredulous  attorney,  who 
underiouk  to  procure  an  exemption  from  service  on  a  jury  for  a  sort  of  vo- 
lunteer irregul'sr  fort  st  preacher,  the  court  demanded  his  credentials  He 
replied  he  did  not  know  wiat  credentials  were.  The  attorney,  a  little 
piqued,  8aid,  Sir,  poh!  poh!  yout  license:  who  gave  you  authority  to  preach? 
He  answered,  Jesus  Chii»t.  Ahl  well,  well,  you  couid  not  have  better  au- 
thority. Shew  his  hand  writing,  and  the  court  wi|l  exempt  ^ou.  1  would 
gay,  in  like  manner,  to  thise  expounders,  something  more  than  their  ipse 
dixit  must  challenge  my  faiih  before  I  can  believe.  After  so  manj  proofs 
from  their  own  documents,  who  will  pretend  t(»  deny  that  ihey  claim  and  ex- 
ercise the  legislative  and  judicial  powers  of  the  Methodist  Epi>copal  Church? 
and  by  the  following  references  it  is  equally  clear  they  wield  the  executive 
also:  See  section  the  7th,  pige  89:  Question.  How  shall  .m  accused  mem- 
ber be  brought  to  trial.''  Answer.  Before  tlie  society  of  which  he  is  a  mem- 
ber, or  a  select  number  of  them,  in  the  presence  of  a  bishop,  elder,  deacoa 
or  preacher.  Here  you  at  once  perceive  discrt  tionary  powers.  He  is 
brought  before  all  the  society  (»r  a  sele(  I  number.  The  travelling  preachers, 
as  w  •  have  seen,  claim  the  righr  of  expounding,  and  in  this  case,  I  have  ne- 
ver y.'t  known  them  fail  to  exercise  it;  and  thev  so  explain  this  law  as  to 
give  themselves  the  right  to  pack  a  jury  if  ihey  prefer  it.  But  this  power 
does  not  stop  here.  If  the  whole  society  or  the  packed  jury  of  the  preach- 
er in  charge,  acquit  the  accused,  and  pronounie  him  innocent,  a  reference 
to  the  4tli  note,  section  the  7th,  page  91.  allows  said  preacher  a  power  not 
possessed  by  any  judge  in  this  country  against  a  pick  pocket.  The  preach- 
er in  ch!)rge,  perhaps  an  entire  stranger  to  all,  can  take  an  appeal  against 
the  decision  of  the  society,  or  his  packed  jury   and  order  the  accused  to  ap- 

£  ear  before  his  next  Quarterly  Meeting  (!oiiference;  and  in  a  large  circuit 
e  may  place  that  one  hundred  miles  frotn  the  residence  of  the  accused.^— 


vSiippose  the  accused  be  a  poor  man,  or  a  woman  in  delicate  health:  they  eaA* 
D<r  -.lend.     The  QuartiN-ly  CoiitVrence  is  loinjiO'ed  mostly  of  the  creatures 
ot  1  •'•  pre  u  ivr  iti  >  'i ar^e,  or  hi>  associ.ilcs  in  oppression.     See  s«'Ctir>n  5lh, 
note  ttie  .)ih    p.ise  28lh.     The  Quarterly  C. inference  consists  of  the  travel- 
,\\i\X.  and  lo<  al  preachers,  exiiorter.,  s<ew>iidsand  leaders  of  the  ChurcK.— 
S"  iion  I9tii,  note  the  4th,  page  58.      I'he  same  preacher  who  has  taken  the. 
an  >eil.  appoints  all  the  leaders  and  changes  them  when  he  thinks  proper.— 
Hi5  ieideisaod  himsolf  accordiiii;  lo  note  ISlh,  sanie  section,  page  43,  make 
the  f'xi^ti  f ers.     Here,   then,   is  the  Quarterly  Conference  Court,  composed 
mn>iiy  ofhj.s  own  ireature>   belore  whom  he  may  thaw  a  victim  from  thebo" 
som  of  a.iy  st>(  ieiv  to  almost  cei  lain  ex))ulj*ion      But  it  may  be  said  there  is 
a  right  of  appeal  from  ilii**  inbunal.     Where  nexi?     To  the  Annual  Confer- 
ence, (he  make'S  id'  the  law,  mow  in  the  last  resort  the  expounders  and  exe-. 
cuti'S  of  it.     \V..ai  remaio'c  buf  s  rengih  to  make  this  the  most  finished  des- 
potic n  ever  kn  .wn?     And  it  gi<iws  fearfully  fast.     It  may  be  said  thin  right 
of  ippeai  wdl  no:  Iji- against  a  local  preacher.     This  is  doubtful.    Unamena- 
ble' p,  wer  will  never  lack  schemes  nor  instruments      Take  the  following 
cas?:*     When  it  was  determined  to  arrest  D'-  Jennings  and  some  ten  or  a 
dozen  of  his  breihien  for  puhlis'iing  a  religious  periodical,  called  the  Mutu- 
al lliGHTS,  they  w^^re  brought  before  a  committee  of  their  political  oppo- 
nen:>.  and   suspended    until    the    en<5uing   District   Conference.     On    the 
fir'<^t  day  of  the  Ui^trici  Conference,  a  debate  ensued  respecting  the  right 
of  the   suspended   preachers  to  vote  on   the  business  of  the  Conference, 
it  vva.<«  determined  in  the  affirmative      The  presiding  elder,  nouvithstanding. 
the  decision,  determined  on  the  next  morning  that  they  should  not  vote.   I'he 
order  of  the  day  being  called  tor,  an  ally  of  the  elder  moved  a  dissolution  of 
the  Cotiference,  evidently  for  the   purpose  of  throwing  the  suspendeil  meu. 
back  upon  the  Quarterly  Conference  of  the  City  of  Baltimore;  for  such  are- 
the  directions  of  the  Discipline  in  the  event  of  the  District  Conference  not 
doing  the  business  assigned  them.     The  motion  was  opposed,   I  think,  by  Id- 
friendly  to  the  suspended,  wh'»  had  reached  the  house.      The  nineteen  op- 
posed to  (hem  were  punctually  on  the  floor.     Before  they  left  the  room,  the 
absentees  arrived,  m-iking  21  white  men  against  19.      The  forlorn  hope,  or 
reserve,  consisting  of  eight  or  ten  colored   men,  was  brought  forward;  their 
votes  were  opposed  of  course.      It  was  alleged  that  Maryland  was  a  slave 
holding  State;  that  the  precedent  was  dangerous,  and  should  not  be  suffer- 
ed.    All  was  overruled;  the  Conference  was  dissolved;  the  colored   mens* 
voies  were  counted      Those  for  the  dissolution  contend  that  it  was  dissolv- 
ed without  the  votes  of  tlie  colored   men;  those  against  it.  that  it  was  not. 
By  the  following  literal  quotation  from  the  Narrative  and  Defence,  a  pamph- 
let published  by  the  committee  who  suspended  or  expelled  Doctor  Jennings 
and  others,  the  further  facts  are  to  be  learned,  and  for  the  literal  correctness 
of  which  I  stand  pledged:     (Pige  113.) 

"  With  referrence  to  the  right  of  colored  men  to  vote,  there  is  nothing  ia 
the  rules  constituting  and  regulating  the  District  Conference,  which  prohi- 
bits the  colored  memtiers  of  the  Conference, from  a  common  right  of  voting 
in  all  cases.  It  is  true  that  though  well  aware  of  their  privileges,  they  have, 
fro!n  prudential  motives,  refrained  from  voting  in  the  Conference  generally 
incases  in  which  the  characters  of  white  members  were  directly  concerned.. 
S.ome  of  us  recollect,  however,  that  on  the  trial  of  a  white  member  of  a,. 

J*  On  the  authority  of  Mr.  M'Kane,  one  of  the  suspended. 


former  session,  (which  member  Is  now  one  of  the  suspended,)  a  coloreil' 
prpjiher  clauned  odd  vv;is  allowed  his  vote  io  favor  ot  tlieaciu^ed.  In  all 
other  'ases.  the^  have  exercised  theil  ri<i;hl  of  voiiug,  u!,eij  tiu-y  thought 
proper.  On  a  niotion  to  dissolve  the  Confeience,  there  was  an  evident  pro- 
prit^y  in  their  claiming  a  right  to  vote;  because  it  involved  a  question  of 
privilege,  in  which  tliey  had  a  common  interest,  and  felt  a  common  con- 
cern "  With  these  there  were  twenty-nine  in  favor  of  the  motion  for  dis- 
solvitig  the  Conference. 

'•  With  respect  to  the  ability  of  our  coloied  preachers  to  vole  intelligent-- 
Ty,   we  may  ri:fer  to  'he  opinion  given  of  then)  by  iht  Conference  in  the  Mi- 
Tiu'esof  1820.     The  Conference  was  much  g'aufied  in   the  examinatir.n  o.f" 
the  colored  preachei>;  they  were  found  lo  be  men  of  good  report,  geouine 
piety,  anil  several  of  them  possessed  of  respectable  talents." 

Here  the  "ight  of  colored  men  to  vote  in  mutters  highly  important  to  the. 
characters  of  white  men,  is  bioadly  asserted;  and  by  this  document  it  is 
clear  that  this  .dleg.  d  right  they  Itaveexercist'd.  The  white  men  were  thrown 
ba<  li  on  the  Quarterly  Cotifererice,  and  all  expelled. 

VV  •  repeat  tbat  unamenable  power  never  wants  for  means  or  instruments, 
W''  ;iie  of  opinion  Uiat  it  is  what  wo  denominated  it  in  the  commencetiient^ 
an  ecclesiastical  despotism  of  the  most  absolute  kind.  We  are  natuiallj 
led  to  seek  for  its  ori2;in.  Was  it  ever  derived  from  the  people  through  tiieir 
de!>  "rates?  Not  .■>(».  It.  was  in  our  esrimatioo,  assumed  in  the  infaocy  and 
inexperience  of  tlie  American  Methodisis;  and  many  still  strive  ftir  its  pre- 
set vation  and  exercise.  Secessions  and  divisions  commenced  with  its  ori- 
gin  in  this  country  and  they  must  continue  with  the  oppression.  Many  dif- 
ferent orders  of  Vleti-odists  novv  exist  iti  this  country  and  io  Europe;  and  we 
are  of  opinion  that  the  numerous  secessions  which  have  occcurred.  are  the 
result  of  thi<!  unnatural  and  oppressive  governineiit.  The  reasims  (if  rea- 
so' «  they  may  be  railed)  assigned  in  juMification  of  themselves,  by  those- 
wh(t  clinj;  <o  this  power  with  pertinacious  giasp,  are,  that  the  recommenda- 
tion frorti  the  society  to  the  Qurterly  Conference,  given  to  young  men  fur  li- 
cense to  pieach,  an<l  the  recoiumendation  from  the  Quarterly  to  the  Annual 
Coo'erences,  make  those  young  men  representatives  for  life;  notwithstand- 
ing the  Afinual  Conferences,  in  the  exercise  of  sovereign  power,  reject  sucl\ 
recommendation  \\  they  think  proper,  and  send  these  new  preachers  or  ra- 
ther, representatives  t>l  the  people,  home.  Surely  this  pretext  is  sufficiently 
farrital  withoui  farther  comment.  The  next  reason  or  pretext  is  founded 
on  society  obligation.  This  obligation  is  learned  by  a  refeience  to  the  Sd 
note  Discipline,  pagf  77,  which  is  as  follows:  '  There  is  only  one  condi- 
tiofi  previeusly  lequirtd  of  those  who  tlesiie  admission  into  those  societies^ 
viz  a  desire  to  fleo  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  l>e  saved  from  their 
siofc,"  The  usual  form  of  admission  is  as  follows:  "  Do  you  desire  t»)  fleer 
from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  be  saved  bv  grarer"  *'  I  do.*'  "  Will  you 
evince  this  desire,  by  a  holy  and  blameless  life,  God  being  your  helper?'* 
"1  will  "  Here,  then,  is  the  contract  between  the  candidate  for  memben' 
ship  and  the  officinting  minister.  Is  there  a  mind,  unwarped  by  party  pre* 
dilerrion,  that  can  find  any  thing  here  to  justify,  on  the  part  of  the  minis* 
ters,  the  right  of  ur)r]ualifie«l  dilation,  and.  on  the  part  of  the  members,  the 
dui;  of  iinriualifi  d  «'ilin>i*sion?  yet  if  these  relations  are  to  be  sUNianned* 
it  mu>'  be  b}  tnis  anc...  li  ;-  rontende*!  their  systcnri  n.nsf  br  riglii  bCr 
cause  of  tueir  Muccess  on  the  ratio  of  numbers.      This  argument  is  surely 


(ijcceptionable  in  niurajl  matters;  because  by  this  rule  the  Shristiau  religic^i 
must  be  !)Ui>;iitory,  and  paf^anisin  must  betriumphaut  If  success  in  the  mo- 
ral rrfmcuation  of  men  has  arteiideil  the  labors  of  Methodist  preachers,  and. 
wt>  admit  it  has,  have  not  local  ministers  and  lay  members  had  an  ample 
share  in  the  lat>ors  th;tt  have  been  thus  blesi?  Does  that  success  prove  ihat 
the  local  preachers  and  laymen  are  less  capable  of  legislating  for  themselves 
than  the  travelling  preachers  are  for  them?  We  presume  not  Suppose  in- 
stead (if  preaching  Christ,  the  divine  right  of  the  itinerant  preachers  to  le- 
gislate ha<l  been  urged,  vi-hat  would  have  been  the  success?  We  presume 
very  inconsiderable  in  a  country  like  ours,  accustomed  to  the  right  of  suf- 
frage Why  should  not  the  Me<hodist,  as  well  as  other  churches,  prove  to 
the  world  that  religious  freedom  is  the  handmaid  of  mural  improvement!* 
The  fact  is,  our  success,  such  as  it  is,  isl)efore  the  world,  and  all  must  see 
it;  and  our  doctrines,  about  which  we  all  agree,  are  generally  understood, 
even  by  those  of  the  most  ordinary  capacity;  but  how  few  of  our  four  hun- 
dred thousand  even  clream  of  the  real  character  of  the  Metbwlist  Epismpal 
Oovernment!  If  our  people  were  generally  as  well  versed  in  our  govern- 
ment as  they  are  in  our  doctrines  and  successes,  those  aristocratical  barriers 
that  sever  us  now.  would  soon  be  swallowed  in  a  sea  of  love.  Their  claim 
to  divine  right  was  briefly  canvassed  in  a  former  part  of  these  reflections. 
^iie  deem  it  therefore  unnecessary  to  say  any  thing  more  on  that  head. 
Proscription,  we  are  sorry  to  say  it,  is  oft  times  hurled  against  us.  Our 
characters  are  assailed;  we  are  generally  denominated  backsliders.  Sup- 
pose we  are;  how  does  this  affect  the  right  of  suffrage?  If  every  man  in  the 
United  States  was  to  turn  horse  thief,  the  right  of  suffrage  would  still  be 
right;  and  if  every  Methodist  io  the  United  States  was  to  backslide,  the 
right  of  suffrage  would  still  be  right  in  church  as  well  as  State.  But  i(  by 
back  and  forward  sliding  is  meant  retrpgading  to  Hell,  or  travelling  to  Hea- 
ven and  the  pcoofs  of  these  are  to  be  determined  by  the  sober  sense  of  those 
who  have  observed  us  for  many  years,  tested  by  the  various  ordeals  of  useful 
life,  and  not  merely  by  a  flying- passport,  called  a  license,  upon  such  evi- 
dence we  invite  a  comparison  with  our  assailants,  of  weight  of  character 
and  moral  worth,  before  any  impartial  tribunal  on  iearth.  We  have  no  dis- 
position to  return  railing  for  railing;  but  we  must  buffer  until  society  shall 
learn  our  claims,  (and  then  they  will  love  them,)  or  sympathise  with  us  un- 
der our  wnings. 

Our  opposLtior)  to  the  system  we  have  delineated,  flows  from  pur  religion 
and  our  patriotism  The  religion  of  Christ  is  a  bond  of  love,  uniting  men 
to  each  other,  and  all  to  God.  It  is  a  brotherhood,  in  its  very  nature  op- 
posed to  invidious  grades.  The  princes  oif  the  Gentiles  exercise  dominion 
over  them,  and  they  that  would  be  mighty,  exercise  power  upon  thom;  but 
it  shall  not  be  so  among  you;  but  whosoever  will  be  great,  let  him  be  yoiii* 
niinistei;  and  whosoever  would  be  mighty,  let  him  be  your  slave.  We  are 
(bid,  however,  that  this  is  not  oppression,  because  all  who  are  so  disposed> 
may  withdraw  from  the  church.  Is  there  any  thing  in  our  civil  govern- 
ment vvliich  takes  away  the  right  of  expatriation?  Should  a  raan  volunrari- 
Jy  abandon  his  residence,  and  remove  to  some  other  State,  or  take  up  his 
abode  in  the'westerrt  wilderness,  he  has  no  one  to  blame;  but  should  some 
volunteer  law  makers  pass  through  this  State,  and  summon  the  good  citizens 
to  abide  by  their  dicta  it  would  bf  a  poo^  palliation  to  pioclaim  that  they 
might  evade  sabmissi9i^.by  abandoning  their  homes;  but,  iii  the  event  6f 


3 


10  •*-       .  . 

their  refusing  to  do  cither,  iliey  must- be  turned  out  of  doors.  Tn  like  man- 
ner, we  cannot  perceive  any  rational  relief  in  the  remedy  >u;;ge=itiMl  by  our 
law  making  brethren.  Th<;y  tell  many  of  us,  who  were  felling  the  for'^sts, 
af.d  planting  the  vines  of  Methodism  before  they  vvere  heird  of,  that  we 
must  either  submit  to  their  laws  or  abandon  our  church;  should  we  refuse  to 
do  either,  we  must  be  spurned  from  society,  or  thrust  out  of  doors.  We 
cannot  perceive  either  reason,  mercy,  or  justi' e    in  this 

Our  opposition  flows  from  our  patriotism  The  system  we  oppose  we  be- 
lieve inimical  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  this  country.  This  msy  extile 
a  smile  from  the  incredulous  and  unthinkinj;;;  but  those  who  are  profound  in 
the  science  of  nature,  government  and  history,  will  act  dift'erently.  (Jur  re- 
ligious prejudices  are  invincible.  Generals,  statesmen  and  sages  have  ever 
studied  this  peculiarity  in  human  nature,  and  profied  by  it.  The  history 
of  France,  England  and  Germany  is  awfully  eloquent  on  this  subject.  Kini>9 
have  been  beheaded  and  sovereigns  dethroned  by  the  influence  of  the  priest- 
hood. Within  a  few  reigns,  a  million  of  brave  men  fc]\  in  the  religious  vvars 
of  France;  in  the  course  of  ages  past,  England  and  Germany  paid  their  full 
tribute  of  religious  blood.  Indeed,  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  have  been 
glutted  with  sectarian  victims.  The  framers  of  our  Constitution  hoped  to 
thwart  similar  tragedies  in  this  country  by  the  counteracting  influence  of 
the  different  septs.  Shituld  they  succeed,  they  will  merit,  the  grati'ude  of 
generations  unborn.  The  United  States,  in  that  respect,  are  still  in  the  in- 
fancy of  expf-riment,  having  much  to  hope  and  fear.  Tho  other  churches 
wiihin  the  North  American  Republic  generally  allow  of  lay  de'egation. 
Within  the  Charleston  Diocese,  lay  delegates  from  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  were  lately  invited  to  a  participation  of  privileges  by  Bishop  Rng- 
lard.  Ttiis  right  is  also  enjoyed  by  the  Protestant  Episcopalian  laity.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  advert  to  the  Baptist  and  Pre-byterian  congregations;  their 
policy  has  ever  been  liberal.  "  Episcopal  Methodism"  professes  to  know  no 
such  rights,  and  to  comprehend  no  such  privileges  on  the  part  of  her  laity 
and  local  ministry,  H?r  other  schemes  are  in  accordance.  Her  Discipline 
acknowledges  no  congregation  as  a  churni,  nor  do  they  admit  that  the  con- 
gregations of  any  one  State  make  a  church.  But  all  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
congregations  in  the  United  States,  in  the  language  of  their  Discipline,  make 
one  church.  Over  this  whole  they  have  some  half  dozen  bishops,  forming 
one  head,  each  having  equal  powers  in  any  and  every  place  of  this  United 
States' Diocese,  without  any  reelection  <luring  life.  These  bishops  make 
the  presiding  elders;  the  presiding  elders  have  superintendence  of  all  the 
preachers  in  their  district,  and  can  change  those  on  the  circuits  at  pleasure 
The  preacher  said  to  be  in  charge  on  the  circuit,  makes  or  changes  class 
leaders,  and  with  his  class  leaders  makes  exhorters;  these,  with  the  local 
and  travelling  preachers,  make  the  Quarterly  Conference;  and.  as  we  have 
seen,  the  preacher  in  charge  can  take  an  appeal  from  the  decision  of  ^ny 
society  or  committee,  against  any  member,  to  said  Quarterly  Conference, 
almist  of  his  own  making. 

Here,  then,  is  an  immense  national  power,  wielded  by  a  few  bishops,  wh© 
are  so  for  life,  and  who  have  almost  an  absolute  c<mtrol  of  the  prejutlices 
and  ecclesiastical  destinies  of  almost  half  a  million  of  people  in  the  United 
States.  This  power  wields  a  printing  establishment  of  trementlous  magni- 
tude; it  issues  something  |,ike  thirty  thousand  copies  weekly  of  one  paper, 
and  that  paper,  for  catch-penny  projects,  surely  is  a  master-piece.  A  Com- 
T»ioner,  now  on  your  floor,  if  1  understood  him  correctly,  informed  roe  ^at 


11 

a  Mr.  Capers,  a  travelling  pfcaclier,  inFormed  him  that  l!ie  exis,{ing  furvil  of  th^ 
Metbudist  Episcopal  churcii  was  between  five  and  seven  hundred  thousand 
4ollars.  Tak.'?  this  in  connexion  with  the  church  property  of  our  ci?ie«;  the 
whole  amount  is  imraen:se.  The  ecclesiastical  power  has  been  in  existence 
about  fortyodd  years;  shtmid  it  increase  in  the  same  ral"o  for  the  next  tifty, 
what  could  be  its  counlerpoise? 

Other  ecclesiastical  powers  are  divided  among  numerous  churches,  hav- 
ing certain  independent  ri^^hts;  but  this  is  a  moving  mammoth,  which  can 
tread  all  over  this  Union  at  a  few  strides.  •  Will  it  not  be  courjed  by  politi- 
cal demagogues?  Mas  it  not  already  been' caressed?  Should  that  bcfal  us 
which  we  have  lately  so  much  feared,  some  great  sectional  division,  what  a 
mountain  could  this  power  heave  in  either  scale!  Look  at  page  189  &  190 
of  Discipline  for  1824,  and  see  with  what  careless  hands  they  finirer  a  politi- 
cal m;igazine,  which,  in  the  event  of  an  explosion,  woujd  burst  the  members 
of  our  political  body,  hither  and  ihither,  in  bloody  confusion,  perhaps  jjever 
again  to  unite  and  live.  Under  the  question,  "  What  shall  be  done  for  the 
extirpation  of  the  evil  of  slavery?"  ihe  following  things  are  attempted:™- 
"  The  preachers  are  to  enforce  prudently  upon  <»ur  members  the  necessity 
of  learning  their  slaves  to  read,  and  to  allow  them  time  to  attend  public  vyor- 
ship  on  all  our  reguhir  days  of  divine  worship  "  "Coloured  preachers  and 
official  members  are  to  have  all  the  rights  and  privileges  which  are  usual  to 
others,  (that  is  white  men,)  in  the  District  and  Quarterly  Conferences, 
where  the  usages  of  the  country  do  not  forbid  it;  and  the  presiding  ei<ler 
may  hold  for  them  a  separate  District  Conference."  "  The  Annual  Confer- 
ence may  employ  coloured  preachers  to  travel  and  preach  where  their  ser- 
vices are  necessary,"  &c,  &c^  The  preachers  are  prudently  to  enforce.—!" 
Do  they  enforce  any  thing,  in  any  other  \yay  than  prudently?  They  will 
say  not.  Why  not  turn  their  members  out,  then,  for  not  learning  their 
slaves  to  read,  and  for  not  carrying  them  up  to  all  V)ur  meetings?  They 
think  it  prudent  to  turn  thena  out  for  c^^er  things.  Beca^use  the  civil  autho- 
rity is  yet  too  strong  VVh^  da^^yjceep  ih^laj^'ln*  th^ir  Discipline,  and 
not  enforce  it?  To  feel  the  pujj^^ilje  |pi(|^miMnze  the  public  mind  to 
it,  and  to  gain  strength  and  ii'inupnce  all  the  whv*.  '*  ViShere  the  usages 
of  the  country  do  not  forbid  it."  What  was  their  own  exposition  of  this 
law,  (for  they  have  their  divine  righr  to  expound,)  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Jen- 
nings and  others?  Why.  that  the  black  men  had  sense  enough  to  vote:  they 
had  a  right  to  vote,  and  they  so  over-ruled  the  Conference,  that  some  eight 
or  ten  did  vote,  one  being  a  slave,  in  a  case  highly  important  to  white  men. 
See  their  own  narrative  and  defence,  published  in  their  own  vindication. — 
How  long  will  it  be  before  they  will  have  slaves  sitting  in  Conference  on  the 
character  of  their  masters?  how  long  before  we  shall  have  coloured  preach- 
ers on  Circuits?  and  how  much  longer  before  they  will  presume  to  gallant 
our  daughters?  Why  do  they  keep  these  laws  in  their  Discipline,  acd  not 
enforce  them?  I  must  reply  again,  for  I  cannot  conjecture  otherwise,  but 
to  familiarize  their  people  to  them,  to  feel  the  public  pulse,  and  gather 
strength.  Thus,  friends  and  fellow  citizens,  you  have  the  subject  before 
you.  Should  some  sagacious  hearer  inquire  whether  we  would,  under  simi- 
lar circumstances,  demean  ourselves  more  properly?  we  answer  no.  Wc 
tru^t  that  "is  yet  we  are  not  so  intoxicated  with  the  notions  of  infallibilitv  as 
to  think  that  nJture  in  us,  "under  the  same  circumscances,  would  act  differ- 
ently ffom  the  saitte  natiO:eW  oiiir  oppooentd:  1%Ien  who  feel  power  are  too 


•ajxtto  ioiget  riji;lit.^'  Wo  claim  the  right  of  suffrage  iu  beiialf  of  the  w£t)i/' 
Chiiirh,  that  we  may  wipe  away  those  obnox'ous  features,  and  balance  a 
system  of  relii^ious  union  for  tlie  people  called  Methodius,  upon  the  plan  of 
our  civil  guvcrnment,  which  shall  preserve  permanent  harmony  among  all 
thi^  members  of  our  association.  We  claim  a  representative  government.— 
For  this,  offence,  and  this  alone,  our  names  are  cast  out  as  evil.  For  this  we 
have  suffcredj  atid  expect  to  suHVr;  but  while  God  shall  lend  us  breath,  we 
nether  iritctid  lodesisf  until  cur  l^hurch,  like  our  country,  shall  be  free.  And 
should  our  object  not  bt>  accomplished  until  our  lives  ebb  away,  we  will 
f?wee(ly  expire  in  cheerful  devotedness  to  our  God,  our  Church,  and  our 
country.  Though  persecuted,  we  are  not  lorsalcen;  though  cast  d.-wn,  we 
.ire  nut  destroyed,  i  hough  the  ground  which  we  recover  is  disputed  by 
inches,  and  every  door,  'vhethcr  public  or  private,  which  can  beshutvgainst 
us  by  the  opposition  is  closed;  thouglf,  to  terrify  the  vveak.they  have  barred 
us  fiom  the  hospitalities  of  charity  itself,  actuilly  excluding  us  from  the  ta- 
ble <'f  t!>e  Lni'l;  yet  since  the  epoch  of  ou?  union,  which  is  no\v  about  twelve 
raonvhs,  our  cause  h:)!- extended  frtVra  file  great  lakes  to  Florida,  and  from 
the  -Vtlantic  to  the  Mississippi.  In  this  State  we  have  about  forty  ministers 
and  some  iuuulreds  of  members.  Muny,  in  the  course  of  the  year,  have  pro- 
fessed religion  among  us  Our  cause  is  strictly  American,  and  it  ougiit— 
it  niu-«i  prt'vail  auiong  Americans;  and  alihou^h  we  may  suffer  for  a  time- 
perhaps  for  lite;  yet  ii  ujust  be  dear  to  generations  to  come,  and  po3teri».v 
will  appreciate  our  toils,  and  do  justice  to  our  memories. 


/^ 


.0Vo^xte*i 


mjnd 


msi 


yf\ 


THE  FORCE   OF  HABIT: 


ar-^' 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  STUDENTS 


OF    THF 


IliiiDmitt}  d!  linrtj}  Cnritlina, 


AT  CHAPEL  HILL,  MARCH  31ST,  1833. 


BY  WILLIAM  HOOPER, 

THEN  PROFESSOR  OF  ANCIENT  LANGUAGES  IN  THE  UNIVERSIEf . 


Nemo  repente  turpissiraus  fuit. — Juv. 

No  man  e'er  reached  tlie  heights  of  vice  at  first— 

By  just  degrees  we  mount  from  crime  to  crime, 

And  perfect  villain  is  the  work  of  time : 

Never  let  man  be  bold  enough  to  say: 

"  Thus  and  no  farther  shall  my  passion  stray  ;" 

The  first  crime  past,  compels  us  on  to  more, 

And  guilt  proves  fate,  which  was  but  choice  before. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST. 
SECOND  EDITION. 

RALEIGH : 

A.  M.  GORMAN,  PRINTER. SPIRIT  OF  THE  AGE  OFFICB. 

1851. 


IPmHIFii©-!! 


o 


Young  Gentlemen  of  the  University  : 

I  dedicate  this  Discourse  to  your  service.  At  your  request  I  have 
submitted  it  to  the  press.  As  a  literary  effort  I  am  sensible  it  presents 
no  claims  to  such  partiality ;  but  as  containing  important  trutlis,  worthy 
of  being  often  held  up  before  your  minds  and  reflected  upon  again  and 
again,  I  have  thought  it  might  not  be  entirely  undeserving  to  pass  into  a 
form  that  should  give  it  a  chance  of  more  durable  utility  than  mere  evan- 
escent utterance  can  ever  effect.  God  grant  that  the  considerations  here 
urged  upon  you,  may  frequently  recur  to  you  in  the  hour  of  need.  I 
have  labored  many  years  in  endeavoring  to  communicate  classical  learn- 
ing to  the  youth  of  North  Carolina ;  but  all  that  Ihave  done  in  that  way 
affords  me  less  comfort  in  the  retrospect,  than  the  possibility  that  sorae- 
thuig  I  may  have  said  in  the  sacred  desk,  has  had  a  share  in  forming  a 
youthful  heart  to  \  irtue,  and  leading  it  to  seek  acquaintance  with  God. — 
If  in  the  course  of  my  connexion  with  the  young  men  of  this  State,  I 
have  met  with  any  success  of  this  kind,  1  must  esteem  it  as  my  most  pre- 
cious earthly  reward,  and  the  most  valuable  fame  I  could  inherit, 

April,  1833. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 

It  is  with  gratitude  to  God  and  to  the  distinguished  head  of  our  Uni- 
versity that  I  hear,  that  this  Discourse  has  been  read  annually,  for  a  num- 
ber of  years,  to  the  Senior  Class,  in  that  important  Institution  ;  and  that 
a  second  Edition  has  been  now  ordered.  To  be  thus  encouraged  to  cher- 
ish the  hope  that  one's  w^ritten  words  are  wielding  even  a  small  secret  con- 
trol over  the  conduct  of  a  large  body  of  influential  youth,  and  helping  to 
fashion  their  moral  characters  for  good  rather  than  for  evil,  may  well 
warrant  an  inward  joy  that  falls  not  to  the  lot  of  those  splendid  but  vi- 
cious minds  whose  baleful  fires  dazzle  but  to  betray,  and  blast  the  rosea 
of  youthful  genius  which  they  have  developed  and  expanded.  Far  from 
me  and  from  my  youthful  readers  be  the  accursed  ambition  of  Phseton, 


IV 

which  would  bum  up  the  world  for  the  sake  of  one  glorious  day  in  the 
chariot  of  the  sun.     Rather  let  ours  be  the  prayer  of  the  poet : 

"  Oh  give  me  lionesi  fame,  or  give  me  none." 

yince  this  address  was  delivered  to  the  Students,  the  University,  under 
wise  and  steady  regulation  and  sound  instruction,  has  so  increased  its  num- 
bers and  its  attractions,  as  to  make  the  writer  realize  still  more  deeply 
the  honor  and  the  responsibility  of  being  admitted  to  share  in  the  moral 
influences  that  are  brought  to  bear  upon  it.  It  must  stir  the  pride  of  an 
old  Alumnus  to  revisit  Chapel  Hill  after  an  absence  of  many  years.  lie 
will  find  that  the  Genius  of  improvement  which  has  .been  bestriding  the 
world  with  giant  steps,  has  left  a  foot-print  there;  that  the  hand  of  time 
wliich  has  blanched  his  temples  and  wrinkled  his  cheeks  has  only  brought 
out  into  fuller  luxuriance  the  besutios  of  his  Alma  Matei'  :  that  her  grav- 
eled walks,  her  gi-assy  terraces,  her  architectural  improvements,  her  am- 
pler halls,  her  expanded  libraries,  her  increased  academic:;!  coi-ps,  and  her 
■  •nltivated  society,  make  it  a  higher  privilege  now  than  it  was  in  his  days, 
to  tread  these  classic  shades,  and  perhaps,  he  will  find  a  sigh  escapincr 
him  that  he  was  born  thirty  years  too  soon. 

Raleigh,  Nov.  6th,  1851. 


A  DISCOURSE,  &c. 


Jer.  xiii.  23.   "  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin,  or  the  leopard  his  spots  ? 
Then  may  ye  also  do  good,  that  are  accustomed  to  do  evil." 

I  shall  take  occasion  from  these  striking  words  of  Scripture  to  ad- 
dress you,  my  hearers,  on  The  force  of  Habit.      You  all  know  that  a 
habit  is  formed  by  the  i-epetition  of  any  act,  until,  by  frequency  and 
long  familiarity,  it  becomes  easy  and  natural.      Hence  it  has  growu 
into  a  proverb  that  "  habit  is  a  second  nature."  Of  how  much  moment 
then  must  it  be,  to  mark  with  especial   vigilance,  and  to  guard  with 
especial  care,  that  season  of  life,  when  the  habits  begin  to  be  formed, 
and  the  character  is  beginning  to  assume  that  shape  which  it  will  carry 
throno-h  the  whole  of  our  earthly  sojom-n,  and   which  will  affect  our 
destiny  for  eternity  !     It  is  because  most  of  my  audience  are  at  this 
critical  period  of  their  lives,  that  I  think  no  subject  on  which  I  could 
possibly  address  them,  is  more  appropriate  to  their  condition ;  no  one, 
which  could  more  jastly  claim  their  deep  and  serious  reflection.     It  is 
not  merely  to  fulfil  a  customary  round  of  duty ;  it  is  not  merely  to 
occupy  you  the  usual  time  with  the  expected  pulpit  performance,  and 
then  to  let  you  go  away,  our  minds  being  well  satisfied  if  the  end  be 
gained  of  having  kept  up  for  another  Sabbath  the  decent  obsei'vance 
«f  our  religion,  and  of  having  thrown  out  some  thoughts  acceptable  to 
your  present  hearing.     No,  my  friends.     We  aim  at  something  more 
than  this  barren  discharge  of  a  periodical  duty,  or  this  half-hour's  oc- 
cupation of  your  minds.   It  is  with  the  cherished  hope  and  the  fervent 
prayer  that  something  may  be  dropped  at  this  time,  which  may  occur 
to  your  meditations  at  many  a  future  day,  and  have  some  operation 
in  regulating  those  habits  which  are  now  fixing  themselves  upon  you, 
that  I  have  chosen  the  words  of  the  text,  as  the  subject  of  my  present 
address.      "  Can  the  Ethiopian  change   his  skin,   or  the  leopard  his 
spots  ?"  exclaims  God  by  the  mouth  of  the  prophet  to  his  people,  now 
become  obstinate  and  inveterate  in  their  wickedness :      "  Can  the 


Ethiopian  change  his  skin,  or  the  leopard  his  spots  ?  Then  may  ye 
also  do  good,  that  are  accustomed  to  do  evil."  Here  the  doctrine  is 
taught,  that  when  habits  of  evil  are  formed,  they  cleave  to  us  with  as 
close  and  inseparable  a  tenacity  as  the  complexion  of  our  skin ;  and 
that  you  might  as  well  expect  the  African,  by  an  act  of  his  will,  to 
become  white,  or  the  leopard  to  change  his  spotty  hide,  as  to  expect 
those  addicted  to  sinful  courses  to  renounce  them,  and  become  good. 
The  comparison  is  certainly  a  most  striking  and  forcible  one,  and  conveys 
little  less  than  the  absolute  impossibility  and  hopelessness  of  a  recovery 
from  vicious  habits.  I  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  say,  that  by  likening 
moral  reformation  to  two  natural  impossibilities,  the  divine  word  means 
to  pronounce  moral  reformation  to  be  utterly  impossible.  But  this  I 
may  safely  say,  that  by  the  compaiison,  God  evidently  intends  to  teach 
us  that  a  return  from  evil  habits  is  extremely  difficult  and  improbable, 
and  would  be  almost  as  miraculous  a  departure  from  the  usual  laws  of 
the  moral  world,  as  the  voluntary  assumption  of  a  new  skin  by  the 
Ethiopian  or  the  leopard,  would  be  from  the  laws  of  the  physical 
world.  So  our  Saviour  declared  the  salvation  of  a  rich  man  to  be 
}Uore  difficult  than  the  passage  of  a  camel  through  a  needle's  eye — a 
natural  impossibility  ;  but  at  the  same  time  brought  the  case  within 
the  reach  of  divine  omnipotence  and  mercy,  saying  that  "with  men 
such  a  thing  was  impossible,  but  not  with  God."  Most  certain  is  it, 
then,  that  the  Maker  of  our  frame  here  calls  upon  us  to  mark  and 
take  notice  of  an  important  and  most  inflexible  law  of  our  moral  con- 
stitution, to  wit,  that  WHAT  WK  ARE    iMADE    BY    LOiNG  HABIT,  THAT   WE 

SHALL  CONTINUE  TO  BE  THROUGH  LIFE.  I  Say  furtlicr,  tliat  our  ob- 
servation of  human  nature  abundantly  confirms  the  doctrine,  and 
proves  that  men  are  carried  onward  by  old  habits  with  a  certainty 
and  fatality  almost  as  rigid  as  that  which  propels  the  rivers  onward  to 
the  ocean.  Let  none  complain  of  this  law  of  our  nature.  Let  none 
say,  why  was  man  made  so  much  the  creature  and  slave  of  habit,  that 
when  once  entangled,  he  loses  all  power  to  extriciite  himself.  We 
might  as  well  quarrel  with  the  law  of  gra\  itation  which  destroys  tlio 
life  of  a  man  who  flings  himself  from  the  top  of  a  precipice.  The 
same  law  of  physical  uatuie  which  makes  the  fall  from  a  precipice 
fatal,  and  which  brings  down  heavy  bodies  with  destructive  force  upon 
tlioudimds  of  human  beings,  that  same  law  holds  the  earth  in  its  orbit, 
binds  all  its  millions  of  inhabitants  to  their  homes  upon  its  surface, 
makes  the  showers  descend  to  gladden  the  fields,  and  rolls  the  watera 


that  would  otherwise  stagnate  and  poison  us,  with  healthful  currents 
to  their  mighty  reservoir. 

Nor  is  this  moral  law,  whose  stubborn  strength  is  so  much  com- 
plained of,  less  a  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  the  author  of  nature  than  the 
other,  nor  is  it  less  remarkable  for  its  salutary  effects  when  legitimately 
used  than  for  its  pernicious  effects  when  abused.  It  is  by  habit  that 
all  the  most  necessary  acts  of  life  are  rendered  easy  and  pleasant.  By 
habit  we  learn  to  walk,  to  speak,  to  read  and  write,  to  perform  all  manual 
operations  with  facility  and  despatch.  By  the  power  of  habit  are  all 
those  acts  carried  on  which  minister  to  the  wants  and  conveniences  of 
life.  By  the  power  of  habit  is  the  printer  enabled  to  combine  his 
types  into  words,  with  a  rapidity  astonishing  to  the  eye  and  surpassing 
all  jjrevious  belief,  and  to  prepare  for  us  those  thousands  of  volumes 
which  are  continually  filling  the  world  with  intelligence  and  delight. 

This  same  principle  of  our  constitution,  is  no  less  subservient  to  the 
passive,  than  to  the  active  powers  of  man.  It  enables  us  to  endure 
with  ease,  hardships  that  were  at  first  intolerable.  It  enables  man  to 
breathe  with  impunity  the  pestiferous  atmosphere  of  crowded  manu- 
factories, to  reside  in  every  climate,  and  after  spending  half  his  life 
among  northern  snows,  to  go  and  spend  the  remainder  in  the  torrid 
zone. 

Now  let  us  mark  the  influence  of  this  .powerful  law  of  nature  upon 
our  moral  conduct.      We  find  fi'om  personal  experience,  and    we 
know  from  observations  on  our  fellow-men,  that  Our  natural  appetites 
acquire    strength  from   every  indulgence  ;  that  at  first  it  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  restrain  them  within  lawful  barriers;  bat  that  habits  of 
excess  render  them  imperious  and  uncontrollable,  so   that   we   are 
dragged  on  after  them,  as  by  an  invisible  chain,  whose  strength  bids 
defiance  to  all  our  resistance.      This  is  the  case   with  respect  to  our 
natural  appetites.      And  it  holds  equally   in  relation  to  our  artificial 
appetites.     A  man  may  contract  such  an  appetite  for  tobacco,  opium, 
or  ardent  spii-its,  as  to  crave  these  naturally   distasteful  articles  with 
a  rage  of  desire,  equal  to  natural  hunger  and  thirst.      It  is  mercifully 
provided,  however,  by  the  constitution  of  our  nature,  that  habit   may 
be  made  as  powerful  an  auxihary  to  virtue  as  to  vice.    By  means  of 
it  not  only  sensual  appetites  and  evil  passions  become  dominant  and 
irresistible,  but  the  numerous  train  of  virtues,  to  which  our  nature  is 
less  inclined,  and  the  incipient  practice  of  which  requires  so  much  heroic 
resolution  and  self-denial,  all  these  feel  the  benign  force  of  habitj.  and 
become  in  timo,  not  only  easier  of  performance,  but  as  fixed  and  cer- 


8 

tain  in  their  operation  on  our  conduct,*  as  are  any  of  our  natural  in- 
stincts. We  are,  then,  creatures  of  habit.  Whatever  becomes  ha- 
bitual becomes  easy,  whether  it  be  virtue  or  vice.  T\Tienever  we  have 
formed  a  habit,  we  seem  to  act  almost  mechanically  in  obedience  to 
the  habit  without  an  effort  of  the  will.  Indeed,  so  prone  are  we  to  repeat 
habitual  actions,  and  so  little  reflection  and  virtuous  resolution  are  we 
conscious  of  in  obeying  good   habits,  that  it  seems  as  if  they  were 

*The  reader  will  thank  me  for  enriching  my  page  with  the  following 
profound  observations.  "Experience,"  says  Mr.  Stewart,  "diminishes  the 
iutiuence  of  passive  impressions  on  the  mind,  but  strengthens  our  actiye 
principles.  A  course  of  debauchery  deadens  the  sense  of  pleasure,  but  in- 
creases the  desire  of  gratification.  An  immoderate  use  of  strong  liquors 
destroys  the  sensibility  of  the  palate,  but  strengthens  the  habit  of  intemper- 
ance. The  enjoyments  we  derive  from  any  favorite  pursuit,  gradually  decay 
as  we  advance  in  years ;  and  yet  we  continue  to  prosecute  our  favorite 
pursuits  with  increasing  steadiness  and  vigor.  On  these  two  laws  of  nature, 
is  founded  our  capacity  of  moral  improvement.  In  proportion  as  we  are  ac- 
customed to  obey  our  sense  of  duty,  the  influence  ol'  the  temptations  to  vice 
is  diminished,  while  at  the  same  time  our  habit  of  virtuous  conduct  is  con- 
firmed. It  is  thus  that  the  character  of  the  beneficent  man  is  formed.  Tlie 
passive  impressions  which  he  felt  originally  and  which  counteracted  his 
sense  of  duty,  have  lost  their  influence,  and  a  habit  of  beneficence  is  become 
a  part  of  his  nature.  "\Ve  might  naturally  be  led  to  suspect  that  the  young 
and  unpracticed  would  be  more  disposed  to  perform  beneficent  actions,  than 
those  who  are  advanced  in  life,  and  who  have  been  familiar  with  scenes  of 
misery.  And,  in  truth,  the  fact  would  be  so,  were  it  n:>t  that  the  eflTect  of 
custom  on  this  passive  impression  is  counteracted  by  its  effects  on  others  ;  and 
above  all  by  its  influence  in  strengthening  the  active  habits  of  beneficence. 
An  old  and  experienced  physician  ia  less  affected  by  the  sight  of  bodily  pain 
than  a  younger  practitioner ;  but  he  has  acquired  a  more  confirmed  habit  of 
assisting  the  sick  and  helpless,  and  would  offer  greater  violence  to  his  nature, 
if  he  should  withhold  from  them  any  relief  that  he  has  in  his  power  to 
bestow.  In  this  case  we  see  a  beautiful  provision  made  for  our  moral  im- 
provement, as  the  effects  of  experience  on  one  part  of  our  nature  are  made 
to  counteract  its  effects  on  another." — Philos.  of  the  Mind,  vol.  \,  p.  386. 

These  remarks  of  Stewart  were  suggested  by  the  following  passage  in  But- 
er's  Analogy.  "  From  these  two  observations  together,  that  practical  habits 
are  formed  and  strengthened  by  repeated  acts,  and  that  jiassive  imjn-essious 
grow  weaker  by  being  repeated  upon  us,  it  must  follow  that  active  habit* 
may  be  gradually  forming  and  strengthening,  by  a  course  of  acting  upon 
such  and  such  motives  and  excitements,  whilst  these  motives  and  excitements 
theoiBelvcs  are,  by  proportionable  degrees,  growing  less  sensible,  i.  e.  are 
contiuualljr  less  and  less  sensibly  felt,  even  ns  the  active  habits  strengthen. 
And  experience  confirms  this:  for  active  principles  at  the  very  time  they 
are  less  lively  in  perception  than  they  were,  are  found  to  be,  somehow-, 
wrought  more  thorouglily  into  the  temper  and  character,  and  become  more 
effectual  in  influencing  our  practice.  Let  a  man  set  liimself  to  attend  to, 
inquire  out,  and  relieve  distressed  persons,  and  he  cannot  but  grow  less  and 
less  sensibly  affected  with  the  various  migeries  of  life,  with  which  he  must 
become  acquainted ;  when  yet,  at  the  same  time,  benevolcuee,  considered 
not  as  a  passion,  but  aa  a  practical  jMinciple  of  action,  will  slrengthcr,  and 
whilst  he  passively  compassionates  tlie  distressed  less,  ho  will  acquire  a 
greater  aptitude  actively  to  assist  and  befriend  them,"  ttc. 

These  remarks  of  botli  these  profound  and  sagacious  writers,  I  have  been 
very  willing  to  transfer  to  tiii«  place,  at  once  to  give  a  more  durable  value  U> 
this  pamphlet  than  it  would  otherwise  possess,  and  to  tempt  my  young 
friends  to  dive  for  other  pearla  in  the  same  deeps. 


1 


9 

hardly  entitled  to  a  moral  character ;  so  nearly  do  they  approach  to 
being  involuntary,  like  the  play  of  our  lungs  and  the  heating  of  our 
heart.  The  time  and  sphere,  then,  for  virtuous  choice  and  virtuous 
determination,  is  in  the  outset  of  life.  It  consists  in  oft  repeating 
those  acts  which  lead  to  good  and  valuable  habits,  and  in  denying 
again  and  again,  as  often  as  they  solicit  us,  those  acts  which  lead  to 
vicious  habits.  Here  then  my  young  friends  take  your  stand.  Re- 
sist the  beginnings  of  evil ;  yes,  the  beginnings  :  that  is  the  impor- 
tant juncture.  Yield  to  the  beginnings  of  evil,  and  you  are  undone.* 
Your  ruin  can  be  ,  predicted  with  almost  as  much  certainty,  as  that  of 
the  bark  which  is  floating  towards  the  cataract  of  Niagara.  Are  you 
now  free,  unfettered  by  the  toils  of  vice  ?  Give  not  up  I  beseech  you, 
that  glorious,  that  blessed  freedom.  Let  not  the  persuasion  of  the 
miserable  victims  of  vice  involve  you  in  their  degradation.  What  ! 
Would  you  let  a  slave  persuade  you  for  the  sake  of  companionship, 
to  share  his  chains  and  his  stripes  V  Would  you  let  a  man,  who  was 
fool  and  madman  enough  to  set  fire  to  his  own  house,  persuade  you 
to  set  fire  to  yours  also,  that  you  might  both  be  in  the  same  condition  ? 
How  would  you  feel  towards  the  man,  who  should  seize  your  hand, 
run  with  you  to  the  verge  of  a  precipice,  and  then  throwing  himself 
over  endeavor  to  pull  you  along  with  him  ?  Would  you  not  wrench 
your  hand  from  his  detested  grasp,  and  recoil  from  him  with 
horror  and  indignation  ?  Yet  you  can  smile  with  complacency  upon 
the  companion,  who,  himself  the  slave  of  vice,  would  have  you  to  for- 
sake the  paths  of  innocence,  and  join  him  in  his  wicked  courses, 
merely  that  he  may  have  countenance  and  society  in  vice  !  You  can 
put  yourself  under  the  guidance  and  conduct  of  such  a  veteran  in 
profligacy,  if  he  will  but  take  hold  of  your  arm,  gay  "  come  along," 
and  laugh  at  your  timorous  scruples  !  Oh  !  there  are  no  words  ade- 
quate to  express  the  abhorrence  due  to  those,  who,  not  satisfied  with 
beino-  ruined  themselves,  practice  their  accursed  arts  in  seducing 
young  and  thoughtless  minds  from  the  paths  of  rectitude,  and  glory 
in  the  propagation  of  vice.  If  those  who  turn  many  to  righteousness 
shall  receive  an  extraordinary  reward,  surely 

-There  is  some  chosen  curse, 


Some  hidden  thunder  in  the  stores  of  heav'n, 
Eed  with  uncommon  wrath,  to  blast  the  man — 

that  finds  an  alleviation  to  his  own  misery  in  undoing  others,  or  can 

*  Prineipiis  obsta ;  sero  medicina  paratur, 
Cum  mala  per  longas  invaluere  moras. — OviD. 


10 

look  around  with  a  devilish  joy  at  the  desolation  he  has  spread.     Yet 

it  is  to  be  feared  that  this  enormity   is  often  committed  within  Col- 
legiate walls,  erected  for   the   nursery  and  culture  of  all  noble  and 

generous  sentiments.     Yes;  we  are  obliged  to  believe  that  here,  even 
in  this  very  place,  are   simple-hearted,   unsuspecting,  moral  young 
men,  year  after  year,  gradually  contaminated  by  those  who  are  older 
than  themselves,  and  who  instead  of  being  their  guides  to  virtue,  use 
the  influence  of  superior  age  to  decoy  them   into  sin.     Ye  unfeeling 
seducers  of  youthful  innocence  !     Is  it  not  enough  that  you  feel,  your- 
selves, the  miseries  of  remorse  ?     Have  you  so  much  malignity  within 
you,  as  to  find  a  solace  to  your  pains  in  making  others  as  wretched  as 
yourselves  ?     Is  it  not  suflScient  to  stab  the  peace  and  wreck  the  hopes 
of  your  own  parents,  must  you   also  stab  the  peace  and   wreck  the 
hopes  of  other  parents?     Ah,  if  you  have  any  pity  or  generosity  left 
in  your  souls,  if  you  would  not,  like  Satan,  enter  paradise,  and  blast, 
out  of  sheer  envy,  the  purity  and  happiness  you  cannot  partake,  leave 
uncorrupted  those  who  yet  walk  in  their  uprightness  ;  who  promise  to 
be  the  joy  of  their  friends,  and  the   hope  of  their  country.     If  you 
must  have  companions  of  your  guilty  pleasures,  take   those  who  are 
already  corrupted.     Let  those  who  take  hands,  and  rush  together  in- 
to the  vortex,  and  find  a  mad  delight   in   ridin";  round  and  round  in 
the  inebriate  whirl  of  waters,  which  are  just  yawning  to  engulf  them, 
let  these,  I  say,  be  all  ecjually  ruined,  equall}'  bereft  of  conscience, 
equally  lost  to  hope,  with  scowling  despair  written  on  their  foreheads. 
Surely  it  ought  to  melt  with  sorrow   the  heart  of  a  young  man,  not 
lost  to  all  sensations  of  humanity,  to  lead  astray  another  younger  than 
himself.     Should  we  not  suppose  that  honor  and  every  kindly  feel- 
ing of  the  soul  would  rise  up  in  his  bosom  in  behalf  of  yet  untarnish- 
ed virtue,  and  induce  him  to  thrust  back  from  his  company,  the  young 
proselyte  who  was  ready  to  yield  himself  up  to  his  ruinous  example  ? 
How  much  more  worthy  would  it  be  of  every  generous  emotion,  for 
those  who  have  contracted  any  unhappy  propensity,  when  they  see 
others  beginning  to  go  the  aame  way,  rather  to  put   them  back,  and 
say  :  "  as  for  ourselves  we  cannot  help  indulging  in  these  things,  but 
you  who  are  yet  safcj  and  not  fatally   bent  towards  these  destructive 
courses,  you  we  advise  to  keep  yourselves  far  from  them."    This  is 
no  more  than  that  common  charity  which  wo  all  show  to  each  other, 
.  when  we  have  unfortunately  taken  a   disease.     Wo  tell  how  we  con- 
tracted it,  and  caution  others  against  the  same  imprudence. 

There  are  various  evil  habits  to  which  your  circumstances  expose 


11 

you,  some  of  which  I  will  mention,  and  leave  it  to  your  good  sense 
and  to  your  consciences  to  apply  the  same  reasoning  and  expostula- 
tions against  those  which  I  may  not  mention,  but  which  you  know 
threaten  to  ensnare  you.  With  respect  to  them  all  I  beg  you  to  carry 
along  with  you,  ever  fresh  in  you.r  memory  this  admonition,  that  "  hab- 
it is  a  second  nature,"  and  that  you  may  as  soon  expect  any  animal 
to  act  in  a  manner  contrary  to  its  nature,  the  lion  to  eat  straw  like 
the  ox,  and  the  wolf  and  the  lamb  to  lie  down  in  amity  together,  as 
for  those  to  learn  to  do  good  who  have  been  long  accustomed  to  evil. 
Beware  then,  how  you  fall  into  the  habit  of  what  is  wrong,  and  be- 
ware of  the  first  act,  lest  that  be  the  foundation  of  a  habit — lest  that 
give  the  soul  an  impulse  from  which  it  never,  never  shall  recover.— 
If  you  are  enticed  by  your  own  desires  or  by  the  arts  of  others, 
RESIST,  as  you  would  resist  an  attack  upon  your  life,  fly  from  the 
temptation — fight  against  the  insidious  passion,  trample  it  under  your 
feet  and  grind  it  to  powder.  When  you  are  sailing  by  the  rocks  of 
the  Sirens,  trust  not  your  ears  to  the  soul-subduing  song  ;  but  like 
Ulysses  and  his  crew,  stop  fast  your  ears  and  let  yourself  be  bound 
to  the  mast  until  you  have  passed  the  danger.  Or,  to  quote  you  a 
better  example,  like  the  young  and  virtuous  Joseph,  snatch  yourself 
forcibly  away  and  flee  far  from  the  tempter  and  the  temptation.  Lis- 
ten to  the  affectionate  counsel  of  Solomon,  the  wisest  of  men  :  "  My 
son,  attend  to  my  words :  incline  thine  ear  unto  my  sayings  :  Enter 
not  into  the  path  of  the  wicked  and  go  not  in  the  way  of  evil  men. — 
Avoid  it,  pass  not  by  it,  turn  from  it  and  pass  away.  Hear  then,  my 
son,  and  be  wise.  Be  not  among  wine  bibbers,  among  riotous  eaters 
of  flesh  :  for  the  drunkard  and  the  glutton  shall  come  to  poverty. — 
Look  not  thou  upon  the  wine  when  it  is  red,  when  it  giveth  its  color 
in  the  cup  ;  at  last  it  biteth  like  a  serpent  and  stingeth  like  an  ad- 
der." Oh  how  exactly  true  have  miserable  thousands  found  this  to 
be,  to  their  eternal  cost ! 

I  mentioned  that  there  were  some  babits  to  which  your  circumstan- 
ces render  you  peculiarly  obnoxious,  and  against  which  therefore, 
every  one  among  you  ought  to  case  himself  in  triple  armour.  Here  I 
cannot  do  better  than  copy  a  passage  from  Dr.  Paley's  moral  philos- 
ophy, a  book  which,  aloEg  with  some  doctrines  of  dangerous  tenden- 
cy, coutains  many  valuable  rules  for  the  conduct  of  life.  "Man," 
says  this  celebrated  author,  "is  a  bundle  of  habits.  There  are  habits 
not  only  of  drinking,  swearing,  and  lying,  and  of  some  other  things 
which  are  commonly  acknowledged  to  be  habits,  but  of  every  modifi- 


12 

cation  of  action,  speech  and  thought.  There  are  habits  of  attention, 
vigilance,  advertency,  of  a  prompt  obedience  to  the  judgment  occur- 
ring, or  of  yielding  to  the  first  impulse  of  passion,  of  extending  our 
views  to  the  future,  or  of  resting  upon  the  present,  of  indolence  and 

dilatoriness,  of  vanity,  of  frctfulness,    suspicion,  captiousnoss,  of 

covetousness,  of  overreaching,  intriguing,  projecting.  In  a  word, 
there  is  not  a  quality  or  function  either  of  body  or  mind,  which  does 

not  feel  the    influence  of    this  great   law  of  animated A 

rule  of  life  of  considerable  importance  is,    that  many  things  ought  to 
be  done  and  abstained  from  solely  for  the   sake  of  habit.     We    will 
explain  ourselves  by  an  example  :  A  man  has  been  brought  up  from 
infancy  with  a  dread  of  lying.     An  occasion  presents  itself,   where  at 
the  expense  of  a  little  veracity,  he  may  divert  his  company,  set  off  his 
own  wit  with  advantage,  attract  the  notice  and  engage  the  partiality 
of  all  arouud  him.     This  is  not  a  small  temptation.     And  when  he 
looks  at  the  other  side  of  the  question  he  sees  no  mischief  that  can 
ensue  from  this  liberty,  no   slander  of  any  man's  reputation,  no  pre- 
judice likely  to  arise  to  any  man's  interest.     Were  there  nothing  fur- 
ther to  be  considered,  it  would  be  difficult  to  show  why  a  man  under 
such-  circumstances  might  not  indulge  his  humor.      But  When  he  re- 
flects that  his  scruples  about  lying  have  hitherto  preserved  him  free 
from  this  vice ;  that  occasions  like   the  present  will  return,  where  the 
inducement  will  be  equally  strong  but  the  indulgence  much  less  in- 
nocent, that  his  scruples  will  wear  away   by  a  few  transgressions  and 
leave  him  subject  to  one  of  the   meanest   and   most  pernicious  of  all 
bad  habits — a  habit  of  lying  whenever  it  will  serve  his  turn :  when  all 
this,  I  say,  is  considered,  a  wise  man  will  forego  the  present,  or  a  much 
greater  pleasure,  rather  than  lay  tlio  foundation    of  a  character  so  vi- 
cious and  contemptible." 

I  quote  this  passage,  not  with  entire  approbation,  because  I  tliink, 
whenever  we  are  tempted  to  a  deviation  from  truth,  even  in  trifles, 
that  a  regard  for  the  sacredness  of  truth,  an  abhorrence  for  falsehood, 
a  reverence  for  conscience  and  a  fear  of  God,  ought  at  once  to  rebuke 
away  the  plausible  deceit  independently  of  the  consideration  that  it 
will  lay  the  foundation  for  a  bad  habit.  But  the  reflections  suggest- 
ed by  Dr.  Paley,  may  well  come  in  as  powerful  auxiliaries,  to  back 
the  instant  and  spontaneous  refusal  of  an  honest  raind.  They  art; 
reflections  too,  which  might  probably  operate  with  considerable  force 
on  many  who  think  very  lightly  of  occasional  falsehood  in  trifles. — 
Such  persons  should   weigh  well  the  danger  of  trifling  with  a  tender 


13 

conscious — of  diminishing  that  awful  veneration  for  truth  which  we 
ought  to  cultivate — of  gradually  breaking  down  the  barrier  in  our 
moral  feelings  between  right  and  wrong,  and  at  length  of  violating  truth 
with  as  little  scruple  in  the  most  important  matters  as  at  first  we  did  in 
the  smallest.  Let  these  reflections,  I  beseech  you,  have  the  weight 
they  ought  to  have  in  checking  that  levity  with  which  an  excuse  is 
fabricated  for  neglect  of  duty.  It  is  fashionable  to  think  and  speak 
of  such  fabrications  as  not  at  all  criminal  or  dishonorable — as  quite 
pardonable.  "It  is  only  baffling  the  Faculty  by  presenting  an  excuse 
which  they  cannot  refuse — they  cannot  have  the  face  to  dispute  *our 
word,  though  we  can  have  the  face  to  make  our  word  unworthy  of 
their  confidence — we  are  not  bound  to  observe  faith  with  the  Facul- 
ty." What  a  shocking  doctrine  is  this,  that  you  should  not  be  oblig- 
ed to  observe  faith  with  any  and  with  every  one !  Is  this  the  casuis- 
try of  Colleges  ?  I  hope  not.  L  hope  that  not  many  among  us  have 
adopted  principles  so  loose.  For  depend  upon  it,  my  young  friends, 
that  the  person  who  can  consent  to  violate  truth  whenever  it  suits  his 
convenience  to  make  up  an  excuse  from  collegiate  duty,  cannot 
have  a  very  delicate  sense  of  moral  obligation  on  the  score  of  truth, 
and  it  will  not  be  surprising  if  he  soon  lose  credit  for  veracity  with 
his  companions.  In  all  communities  there  will  be  some  who  will  fall 
in  with  every  vicious  habit  that  happens  to  be  fashionable,  and 
will  carry  it  just  as  far  as  they  dare  carry  it,  without  forfeiting  their 
character.  They  have  no  fixed  principles,  no  firm  integrity  of  pur- 
pose, no  independent  rule  of  action,  no  settled  habit  of  doing  what  is 
right  at  once,  without  waiting  to  see  if  public  opinion  will  not  coun- 
tenance an  aberration.  Such  pei-sons  are  mere  moral  chameleons;* 
they  take  their  complexion  from  surrounding  objects.  Let  them 
be  at  Rome,  they  will  be  like  those  at  Rome  ;  or  if  at  Botany  Bay, 
their  plastic  character  can  easily  be  moulded  into  an  assimilation 
with  the  manneis  and  morals  of  that  famed  colony  of  convicts.  Let 
it  be  the  fashion  to  swear,  to  drink,  to  seduce,  to  fight  duels,  to  spend 
their  money  in  gaming  and  have  none  to  pay  honest  debts  with,  to 
break,  and  live  in  the  same  style  after  their  bankruptcy  as  before, 
these  obsequious  apes  oithe  mode,  without  a  moment's  hesitation  give 
into  follies  and  vices  that  chance  to  prevail  and  are  glad  when  the 
laxity  of  pubhc  morals  will   prevent   such  practices   from  rendering 

*  A3  the  chameleon  which  is  known 
To  have  no  colours  of  his  own ; 
But  borrows  from  his  neighbor's  hue, 
His  white  or  black,  his  green  or  blue. — Priob, 


14 

them  infamous.  Now  these  persons  are  ^Yithheld  from  the  worst 
actions  only  by  the  fear  of  disgrace.  They  are  not  ashamed  to  com- 
mit the  acts  themselves,  but  only  ashamed  ot  the  detection  of  them. 
If  a  pei-son  has  contracted  such  principles  in  a  college,  wonder  not  if 
in  subsequent  hfe  you  find  him  careless  of  veracity.* 

I  might  enter  upon  the  same  course  of  reasoning  with  regard  to 
many  other  bad  habits,  such  as  swearing,  idleness,  encroachment 
upon  your  neighbor's  time,  making  a  joke  of  taking  any  article  of  a 
fellow  student's  property,  &c.  These  things  are  done  thoughtlessly, 
but*  must  injure  the  delicacy  of  moral  principle ;  they  must  gradually 
impair  virtuous  sensibility ;  or,  as  Mr.  Burke  beautifully  expresses 
it,  "that  chastity  of  honor  which  dreads  a  stain  hke  a  wound."  Let 
me  advise  you,  whenever  wrong  practices  prevail  in  college,  not 
slaATsbly  to  fall  in  with  them,  and  say :  ""Why,  nothing  is  more 
common  among  us ;  nothing  is  thought  of  such  things."  Rather  op- 
})Ose  the  weight  of  your  influence  and  example  against  such  practices, 
and  if  you  should  be  singular,  dare  to  be  singular  in  a  good  cause ; 

Eather  stand  up  assured, with  conscious  pride 
Alone,  than  err  with  millions  on  your  side. 

But  I  pass  over  all  other  habits  as  of  minor  importance,  that  I  may 
occupy  the  remainder  of  my  time  in  speaking  of  one  more  dangerous 
and  fatal  than  all  the  rest.  You  cannot  be  ignorant  that  I  allude  to 
the  appetite  for  spirituous  liquoi-s.  That  the  most  powerful  argu- 
ments and  expostulations,  against  this  propensity  are  much  needed 
in  every  college  is  unhappily  too  well  known.  It  is  wonderful  that 
when  the  whole  countiy  is  covered  Avith  monuments  of  ruin  produced 
by  intemperance — of  intellectual  and  moral  wortli  once  high  in  dig- 
nity, now  abject  and  prostrate — of  famiUes  once  happy  and  prosper- 
ous, now  helpless,  broken-hearted  and  struggling  for  subsistence — it 
is  wonderful  that  young  men,  seeing  so  many  of  these  monitory 
spectacles  before  them,  will  venture  to  taste"  the  liquid  poison  which 

*  During  the  last  war,  I  happened  to  travel,  in  one  of  our  public  convey- 
a)ice3,  with  a  young  officer  of  the  army.  Having  occasion  to  stop  in  one 
of  the  cities,  1  accompanied  him  into  a  shop  where  he  enquired  the  price  of 
a  sword.  He  dcfcliued  purchasing  then,  but  told  the  shop-keeper  he  would 
"step  in  to-morrow  ana  look  at  them  again,"  when  he  knew  that  we  were 
to  depart  in  a  few  hours  !  I  blushed  for  him,  thata  soldier,  whose  glory  it  is 
to  scorn  whatever  is  false  and  disingenuous,  should  value  truth  so  little. 
Will  you  say,  this  was  a  triHe  ?  Well,  so  was  the  temptation  a  trifle,  and  1 
am  not  sure  that  the  same  man,  upon  the  occurrence  of  a  great  temptation 
with  the  hope  of  concealment,  would  not  have  lied  in  the  most  important 
matter.  Yet  if  a  person  had  offered  to  doubt  this  man's  word  on  any  occa- 
sion, he  would  have  been  i-cady  to  run  him  through  the  body. 


15 

has  spread  around  them  this  desolation.  Yet  strange  to  tell,  they 
•will  rush  upon  the  peril  without  even  the  temptation  of  appetite. — 
Yes,  many  a  youth,  it  is  feared,  has  here*  begun  to  drink  when 
he  had  a  positive  dishke  to  the  taste  of  spirits,  merely  for  the  sake 
of  appearing  sociable  and  manly.  But  soon  he  pays  dearly  for  hi« 
temerity  and  vain-glory.  Soon  the  insidious  passion  fastens  itself 
upon  him — ^he  contracts  a  liking  for  stimulating  drink,  which  perhaps 
shows  its  immediate  effects  in  slackening  his  exertions  in  his  class, 
creating  an  aversion  to  labor,  a  distaste  for  his  studies,  and  a  fondness 
for  idle  company.  No  wonder  now  at  the  oft  alleged  excuse  of  sick- 
ness, for  absence  from  duty.  For  what  else  can  be  expected  after 
such  indulgences,  but  lassitude,  and  drowsiness,  and  nausea  ?  No 
wonder  if,  presently,  college  restraints  and  requisitions  become  in- 
tolerable, and  an  application  is  made  to  his  parent,  requesting  that 
he  may  be  permitted  to  return  home,  in  the  midst  of  his  collegiate 
course.  Then  may  we  predict  his  impending  ruin  with  mournful 
certainty,  and  resign  him  up  with  despair  to  the  despotism  of  a  habit 
which  overleaps  all  the  barriers  that  parents  and  trustees  and  pre- 
ceptors could  throw  in  its  way !  May  I  not  bespeaking  to  some  now, 
who  are  conscious  that  this  habit  has  obtained  an  almost  complete 
ascendancy  over  them  ?  Do  they  not  feel  its  despotism  over  the  will  ? 
Do  they  not  find  themselves  totally  unable  to  resist  the  cravings  of 
appetite,  although  they  know  the  danger  of  the  habit  that  is  growing 
upon  them  ?  They  know  it,  but  alas !  it  is  too  late  ;  the  pleasure  of 
present  gratification  is  all  they  care  for,  and  they  purposely  shut  their 
eyes  to  the  probable  issue  of  these  things.  But  others  can  see  it,  if 
they  will  not.  Yes  ;  we  can  calculate  upon  the  premature  ruin  and 
early  death  of  such  a  young  man  with  almost  as  much  confidence,  as 
if  the  deep,  hollow  cough,  the  hectic  flush  and  the  wasted  form 
marked  him  out  as  the  victim  of  consumption :  I  say  with  almost  as 
much  certainty ;  because  the  very  same  experience  that  teaches  us  the 
laws  of  the  natural  world,  teaches  us  the  laws  of  the  moral  world.  The 
very  same  observation  that  makes  us  know  the  cough,  the  hectic 
flush,  the  wasted  form,  the  hemorrhage  from  the  lungs  to  be  alarming 

*The  writer  would  not  be  understood  to  intimate  that  the  habits  of  the 
students  whom  he  addressed  were  worse,  or  their  temptations  greater  than 
those  of  members  of  colleges  generally.  He  feels  it  as  due  to  them  to  say 
on  the  contrary,  that  a  Temperance  Society  embracing  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  the  students  belongs  to  the  college,  and  that  he  belieyes  parents 
encounter  no  greater  risk  in  venturing  their  sons  at  this  than  at  any  other 
similar  institution.  So  far  as  he  has  had  an  opportunity  of  discovering,  an 
appetite  for  drink  is  as  little  indulged  in  this  college  aa  in  any  other. 


16 

prognostics  of  dissolution,  enables  us  also  to  know  that  the  morning 
dram,  the  evening  carousal,  the  secreted  bottle,  the  tainted  breath, 
the  flushed  or  the  pale  face,  the  ill-gotten  lesson,  are  alarming  pre- 
sages of  a  habit  of  incurable  intemperance.  And  we  anticipate  the 
speedy  and  mournful  issue  of  the  one,  with  as  little  danger  of  mistake 
as  the  issue  of  the  other. 

Will  then  any  one  who  is  sensible  of  being  in  the  very  jeopardy 
I  describe,  say,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  I  reply  :  even  symp- 
toms of  consumption  have  been  removed  by  an  early  resort  to  the 
proper  means.  And  it  is  with  this  very  hope  of  your  taking  a  timely 
alarm,  and  adopting  the  proper  means  of  recovery  that  I  ring  these 
admonitions  in  your  ears.  I  would  depict  with  all  my  powera  the 
terrible  danger  of  an  incipient  habit ;  that  those  yet  free  may  keep 
free ;  may  come  not  nigh  the  slippery  verge.  And  I  would  sound  a 
still  louder  alarm  of  the  awful  issue  of  confirmed  habit,  to  those  who 
are  just  beginning  to  feel  its  force.  .  I  would  say  to  them  :  feel  and  act 
as  if  you  were  sliding  with  smooth  and  pleasant  motion  down  a  moun- 
tain's icy  breast,  that  overhung  a  yawning  abyss.  You  are  beginning 
to  descend ;  but  the  declivity  is  yet  gradual,  the  way  is  smooth,  and 
your  motion  is  not  rapid  enough  to  alarm  you,  but  only  sufficiently 
so  to  animate  your  spirits,  and  to  excite  a  glorying  of  mind  at  the 
bravery  of  your  enterprise.  Your  older  and  more  experienced  friends 
stand  on  the  neighboring  heights,  and  watch  with  considerable  anxiety 
your  thoughtless  career.  They  cry  out  to  you,  and  tell  you  of  the 
precipice  ahead.  Be  advised  ;  let  not  their  warning  voice  be  neg- ' 
lected  ;  throw  youi-self  from  the  flying  vehicle  that  is  hurrying  you  to 
destruction ;  grasp  at  every  twig  that  will  arrest  your  progress,  and 
strain  every  muscle  and  sinew  to  regain  the  summit  from  which  you 
so  heedlessly  set  out.  But  if  you  refuse ;  if  you  laugh  at  the  idle 
feai-s  of  your  friends ;  if  you  flatter  yourself  that  you  can  stop  long 
before  you  reach  the  precipice  ;  all  they  can  do  is  to  look  on  with 
silent  agony  at  the  approaching  catastrophe.  They  could  tell  you  if 
you  would  hear  them,  that  the  declivity  is  every  moment  becoming 
steeper ;  that  the  velocity  of  a  falling  body  is  every  moment  accele- 
rated ;  that  the  twigs  along  your  path  which  once  might  have  arrested 
you,  will  now  snap  in  an  instant  before  the  violence  of  your  motion, 
and  onward,  onward,  onward  you  must  go  until  you  reach  the  verge, 
then  take  the  awful  leap  and  disappear  forever  !  And  if  such  a  fate 
as  I  have  described  were  to  befall  you,  in  the  literal  sense  of  the 
description,  it  would  be  less  mournful  than  that  it  should  befall  you 
ia  the  allegorical  sense  intended.     For  then  you  might  die  compara- 


17 

tively  innocent  and  respectable.  Your  friends  might  not  see  your 
mangled  corpse,  nor  feel  disgraced  by  your  death.  But  who  can  do 
justice  to  the  feelings  of  those  parents  whose  son,  just  ripening  into 
manhood,  is  dying  before  their  eyes,  the  loathsome  victim  of  his  guilty 
excesses  !  How  shall  they  escape  from  the  hideous  spectacle  ?  Their 
own  house,  the  only  place  they  have  to  lay  their  head,  the  birth  place 
of  their  children,  the  spot  where  are  clustered  all  their  comforts,  the 
peaceful  sanctuary  of  their  old  age,  becomes  the  hospital  of  their 
reprobate  son,  worn  out  with  intemperance.  He  occupies  one  of  the 
chambers.  There,  while  they  lie  on  their  sleepless  beds  in  a  neigh- 
boring room,  (I  have  witnessed  something  of  what  I  describe)  they 
hear  his  calls  for  drink,  bis  disgusting  belches,  his  horrid  execrations 
against  himself,  and  ever  and  anon  a  groan,  bespeaking  misery  too 
big  for  words  to  tell !  And  is  this  the  return  you  make,  degraded 
young  man,  for  all  the  loving-kindness  of  your  parents  ?  Is  this  the 
way  you  requite  the  father  that  dandled  your  infancy  on  his  knee, 
and  from  that  time  till  the  present  has  been  toiling  to  provide  for 
your  happiness  1  Is  this  your  gratitude  to  the  mother  that  brought 
you  into  the  world,  that  cherished  you  at  her  breast,  that  tended  your 
cradle  with  throbbing  temples  and  an  aching  heart,  that  watched  you 
all  along  your  playful  boyhood  with  ceaseless  tenderness,  and  that  at 
length  let  you  go  from  under  her  eye  to  a  place  of  education,  only 
from  the  confidence  (a  confidence  alas  too  much  misplaced)  that  the 
principles  and  the  gratitude  with  which  she  had  imbued  you,  would 
forever  forbid  you  to  distress  her  by  a  vicious  life  ?  Surely  this,  if 
anything  in  the  world,  realizes  the  fable  of  the  frozen  viper,  that, 
as  soon  as  it  was  thawed  into  life,  struck  its  evenomed  fangs  into 
the  bosom  that  warmed  it. 

But  I  would  not  stop  at  the  exhibition  of  the  temporal,  the  earthly 
consequences  of  this  worst  of  habits.  Coulcl  I  do  it,  I  would  disturb 
the  slumbers  of  the  dead — I  would  evoke  from  their  tombs  the  myriads 
that  have  gone  down  thither  before  their  time,  the  victims  of  drunk- 
enness. I  would  array  their  ghastly  spectres  in  a  long  line  before 
you,  sire  by  the  side  of  son,  and  brother  at  the  right  hand  of  brother. 
I  would  call  upon  them  to  tell  you  of  the  first  steps  that  led  to  their 
undoing;  how  they  first  trifled  with  their  enemy — how  they  in 
thoughtless  boyhood  mixed  with  idle  company  ;  made  drunkenness  a 
subject  of  jesting  ;  took  a  glass  among  their  jovial  friends,  merely  to 
appear  social  and  manly  when  the  liquor  was  not  pleasant  to  their 
taste — how  the  appetite  grew  with  every  indulgence  until  it  was  im- 


18 

possible  to  deny  it — until  they  themselves  became  the   very  beastly 
spectacles  of  intemperance  they  had  been  accustomed  to  look   upon 
with  loathing  and  contempt ;  how  they  lingered  upon  earth,  becoming 
more  and  more  the  sorrow  and  shame  of  their  friends,  and  at   last 
sunk  unregretted  to    the  grave.     I    would  extort  from  them    "the 
secrets  of  their  prison  house."     I  would  make  them  appear  before 
you  surrounded  with  their  atmosphere   of  tempestuous   fire — open 
before  you  their  tortured  breasts  and  disclose  within  the  never-dying 
worm  gnawing  on  their  hearts — tell  you  with  their  burning  tonguet 
the  horrors  of  their  doom,  and  peal  in  your  trembling  ears  the  declar- 
ation of  tho  Almighty,  that  drunkards  shall  lie  down   in  the   "lake 
that  burueth  with  fire  and  brimstone  for  ever   and  ever."     I  should 
hope  that  such  a  vision  would  make  you  shun  for  life,  the  sight,  smell 
and  taste  of  inebriating  liquors.     Oh  !  in   the  contemplation  of  the 
manifold  and  direful  miseries  that  flow  from  this  bane  of  the  human 
race,  one  might  be  tempted  to  curse  the  memory  of  the  man  that  first 
invented  the  art  of  distillation;  of  extracting  death   from  God's  good 
creatures,  intended  to  be  the  nourishers  of  life.  One  might  be  tempted 
to  wish  that  every  distiller  of  spirits,  and  every  vender  of  spirits,  and 
every  drinker  of  spirits,  could  have  their  midnight  slumbers  haunted 
by  the  apparitions  of    pale  widows    and  orphans  in   their   robes    of 
mourning,  and  by  the  horrible  skeletons  of  their  poisoned  husbands 
sons  and  brothers,  until,  their  goaded  consciences  should  drive  them 
with  unanimous  movement,  to  seize  every  vessel  containing  the  liquid 
poison  and  throw  it  into  a  funeral  pile,  to  make  one  general  pious 
burnt-offerino;  to  Heaven,  while  the  art  of  manufaeturin";  the  accursed 
pest  should  forever  be  blotted  from  the  memory  of  man.     But   why 
wish  for  terrifying   visions  of  the  dead  to  benefit  the   living?     The}' 
will  never  be  granted.     Nor  are  we  sure  that  they  would  prove  the 
means  of  reformation.     For  what  says  Christ,  that  divine   anatomist 
of  the  human  heart  ?     "If  they  believe  not  Moses   and  the  prophets, 
neither  vi'ill  they  be  persuaded  if  one  rose  from  the  dead."     Bowing 
with  unquestioning  credence  to  the  divine  decision,  and  feeling  deeply 
the  utter  impotcncy  of  man  to  help  himself  when  sunk  in  evil  habits» 
let  us  rather  urge  the  ])uor  shive  of  sin  to  look  with  imploring  eye  to 
tho  Heavens,  and  let  u.s  join  our   supplications  to   his  that  the  Al- 
mighty's arm  may  be  stretched  down  to  "  lift  him  out  of  the  liorrible 
pit,  and  out  of  the  miry  clay,"  and  to  put  into  his  mouth  the  song  of 
deliverance. 

Before  I  conclude,  I  must  take  notice  of  a  doctrine  held  by  many, 


19 

sometimes  even  urged  from  tlio  pulpit,  which  seems  to  lie  as  an  ob' 
jection  to  the  argument  we  have  been  endeavoring  to  enforce.  It  i? 
said  that  God  can  as  easily  convert  a  hardened  profligate  as  the  most 
correct  moralist ;  nay,  that  the  former  will  much  more  probably  be 
awakened  from  his  security  than  the  latter,  because  the  very  enormity 
of  his  sins  serves  as  an  alarm-bell  to  shake  his  sleepy  conscience,  or 
as  the  sting  of  scorpions  to  rack  him  with  fierce  pains  of  intolerable 
remorse  ;  and  hence  we  hear  it  sometimes  incautiously  asserted  that 
the  man  of  sober,  respectable  character  is  in  more  danger  of  final 
perdition  than  the  abandoned,  confirmed  libertine.  What  is  the  di- 
rect tendency  of  such  a  belief?  Why  to  establish  the  dangerous 
paradox,  that  the  more  a  man  sins  the  better  for  himself — it  will 
quicken  his  conscience  and  arm  it  with  mighty  energy  to  drive  him 
from  his  evil  courses  ;  and  thus  his  chance  of  salvation  will  be  increased 
the  deeper  and  deeper  he  plunges  into  iniquity.  What  an  awful 
license  such  a  belief  must  give  to  vicious  propensities,  what  an  ad- 
ditional impulse  it  must  lend  to  the  already  imperious  rage  of  ap- 
petite may  easily  be  conceived.  And  yet  nothing  is  more  certain, 
if  we  are  to  believe  our  text  and  the  facts  occurring  to  our  daily  ob- 
servation, than  that  the  more  a  man  sins  the  harder  he  grows,  that  every 
new  sin  stupefies  and  indurates  the  conscience,  renders  a  man's  re- 
treat more  diflicult  and  improbable,  and  his  final  ruin  more  fatally 
certain.  We  may  illustrate  the  two  cases  thus.  Heaping  sin  after 
sin  upon  the  conscience,  may  be  compared  to  heaping  green  wood 
upon  a  few  coals.  The  more  you  throw  on,  the  more  you  crush  the 
coals,  and  the  greater  danger  of  putting  out  the  fire  altogether.  If  how- 
ever, the  feeble  heat  should  not  expire  under  this  incumbent  weight, 
but  should  by  great  good  fortune  once  ignite  the  wood  contiguous  to  it, 
then  all  the  oppressive  heap  serves  as  so  much  aliment  to  feed  the 
flame,  and  to  increase  the  greatness  and  heat  of  the  fire.  So  a  profli- 
gate's conscience  has  the  almost  certain  prospect  of  being  seared  in 
final  obduracy.  But  if  by  one  of  those  astonishing  acts  of  God's 
special  mercy  which  it  pleases  him  sometimes  to  work  for  the  display 
of  his  power  and  goodness,  that  profligate's  conscience  is  awakened, 
it  will  be  apt  to  operate  more  powerfully  upon  him — apt  to  produce 
more  awful  agonies  of  fear,  more  convulsive  struggles  to  eflfect  an 
escape,  deeper  humiliation,  and  if  he  obtains  pardon,  more  ecstatic 
gratitude,  that  such  an  enormous  transgressor  has  been  spared  and 
j^urified  and  blessed.     He  has  had  much  forgiven,  he  will  therefore 


20 

love  much.*  But  let  every  man  beware  how  he  tries  the  dreadful 
experiment  of  sinning  in  order  to  furnish  himself  with  materials  for 
repentance.  Enough  of  these  the  most  blameless  will  find  who  study 
the  holy  law  of  God,  and  compare  it  with  the  evil  that  is  in  their 
hearts.  That  delicacy  of  conscience  which  is  the  fruit  and  the  re- 
ward of  a  moral  life,  will  by  the  aid  of  God's  Spirit,  enable  you  to 
have  a  quicker  and  livelier  feeling  of  what  is  evil,  and  to  find  as 
copious  a  source  of  godly  sorrow  and  humiliation  in  the  secret  sins 
of  your  heart,  as  the  gross  transgressor  finds  in  the  recollection  of 
his  scarlet  and  crimson  sins.  Never  have  I  heard  from  the  lips, 
never  have  I  read  in  the  secret  diary  of  any  penitent  prodigal,  such 
deep,  heart-touching  confessions  of  inward  depravity  and  self-loathing, 
as  appears  in  the  journals  of  Edwards  and  Brainerd  and  Martyn  and 
Payson,  men  w^ho  were  preserved  comparatively  pure  and  free  of 
vicious  habits  from  their  tender  years.  The  profligate  may  escape  ; 
but  he  will  have  reason  to  remember  all  his  life  time,  that  he  has 
escaped  as  by  fire.  Like  one  of  Milton's  infernal  potentates,  he 
bears  on  his  marred  visao-e  the  sisfuals  of  his   unrighteous  battle  with 

Heaven. 

His  face 

Deep  scars  of  thunder  have  intrenched. 

— He  will  have  cause  to  bemoan  while  he  lives  his  career  of  profli- 
gacy. He  will  be  "made  to  posess  the  iniquities  of  his  youth"  t 
in  bodily  diseases,  a  shattered  constitution,  shame  for  past  dishonor, 
past  injuries  to  others — injuries  alas  !  irreparable  ;  injuries  to  those 
who  are  dead,  and  therefore  out  of  the  reach  of  his  tardy  retribution 
— injui-ies  to  those  who  are  h\ing,  but  irremediably  blasted  in  fortune 
and  reputation,  or  unconquerably  fortified  in  vice  and  infidelity  .J  He 
will  find  himself  reaping  the  bitter  fruits  c>f  early  crimes,  perhaps  in 
the  rebellion  or  lewd  lives  of  his  children,  vitiated  by  his  bad  example 
and  his  cruel  neglect — in  a  soiled  and  polluted  imagination,  and  the 

*  For  edifying  examples  of  such  wonderful  transformations  of  character 
by  the  power  of  religion,  I  would  refer  tiie  young  man  to  the  lives  of  Lord 
liociiester,  Col.  Gardiner,  Capt.  Wilson,  Wm.  Howard  and  Jno.  Newtou. 
f  Job  xiii,  26. 

X  Mr.  Newton,  in  the  narrative  of  his  early  life,  which  hoA  all  the  fasoi- 
nation  of  a  novel,  makes  the  mournful  confession,  tlmt,  after  his  conversion 
he  tried  to  reclaim  those  whose  faith  he  had  overthrown — but  in  vain. — 
They  laughed  him  to  scorn  I  So  much  ea.sior  did  he  tind  it  to  poison  than 
to  cure — to  demolish  than  rebuild.  The  extinction  of  the  epark  of  virtue 
is  like  the  extinction  of  the  precious  spark  of  life  : 

"*  *  *  once  i)Ut  out — 
1  know  not  where  is  that  Promethean  heat 
That  can  thy  light  relume." 


21 

pestilent  and  contaminating  recollection  of  past  abominations.  Tliese 
may  make  him  go  mourning  all  his  days.  To  cleanse  this  heart,  thiia 
Augean  stable  where  foul  lusts  have  held  their  abode  for  many  years, 
will  furnish  him  with  Herculean  labor  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Oh !  what 
untimely,  unwelcome  intrusions  will  the  visions  of  former  riot  make 
upon  his  soul,  perhaps  in  his  most  hallowed  moments,  perhaps  in  the 
very  attitude  of  devotion !  How  much  work  will  he  have  to  do  in 
keeping  out  these  vile  thoughts  ?  How  will  they  with  impudent  free- 
dom rush  unbidden  into  the  breast  that  once  harbored,  but  would 
now  fain  exclude  them,  and  with  their  harpy  touch  defile  the  sanctuary 
of  the  soul,  and  the  very  offering  that  is  there  burning  on  the  altar 

of  God ! 

Diripiuntque  dapes,  contactuque  omnia  fcedant 
Immundo. 

Oh  then  will  the  reclaimed  profligate  bemoan  himself  that  he  ever 
laid  up  within  him  such  materials  for  shame  and  sorrow,  and  will  envy 
those  whose  youth  unstained  by  vice,  has  never  entailed  upon  them 
such  an  inheritance  of  gmilty  recollections.  You  may  say  that 
these  things  serve  to  humble  him.  Yes  they  do,  but  they  often  keep 
liim  mourning  and  prostrate,  ashamed  to  lift  up  his  head  or  exert  his 
hands,  when  he  ought  to  be  up  and  doing,  rejoicing  and  praising, 
and  acting  for  his  God. 

But  supposing  the  hardened  sinnei''s  conscience  to  awake,  is  he 
sure  that  it  will  awake  to  repentance  ?  Is  he  sure  that  it  will  not 
awake  to  horror  and  desperation  ?  Is  he  sure  that  it  will  not,  like 
Cain's,  drive  him  out  from  the  presence  of  God  ?  That  he  will  not 
quickly  draw  down  again  over  his  eyes,  the  vail  which  had  been  for 
a  moment  drawn  up,  but  disclosed  prospects  too  horrible  for  contem- 
plation ?  Is  he  sure  that  an  insulted,  aggrieved  and  outraged  eon- 
science  will  not  like  the  ill-boding  owl,  scream  in  his  ears  the  shrill 
note  of  despair,  of  sin  beyond  the  reach  of  God's  mercy,  sin  inexpi- 
able even  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  until  it  urges  him  like  Judas  over 
the  precipice  of  self-murder  ! 


PASTORAL  LETTER  L^ 


OF 

THE  MOST  REVEREND, 


THE 


ARCHBISHOP  OF  BALTIMORE, 

AND 

THE  RIGHT  REVEREND, 

THE  BISHOPS 

OF    THE 

ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH, 

IN  THE 


ASSEMBLED    IN    PROVINCIAL    COUNCIL,  IN  THE    CITY  OF    BALTIMORE,  IN 
THE    MONTH    OF    APRIL    1837, 

TO    THE 

CLERGY  AND  LAITY  OF  THEIR  CHARGE. 


For  which  cause  I  also  suffer  these  things;  but  1  am  not  ashamed.  For  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed,  and  I  am  certain  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him,  against 
that  day.  11.  Tim.  i.  12.  , 

For  of  these  sort  are  they  who  creep  into  houses,  and  lead  captive  silly  women  loaden  with 
Bins,  who  are  led  away  with  divers  desires. 

************ 

But  they  shall  proceed  no  farther:  for  their  folly  shall  be  manifest  to  all  men.        *  * 

But  thou  hast  fully  known  my  doctrine,  manner  of  life,  purpose,  faith,  long  suffering,  love,  pa- 
tience, persecutions,  afflictions,  *  *  *  *  and  out  of  them  all  the  Lord  de- 
livered me.  II.  Tim.  iii.  6,  9, 10, 11. 


BALTIMORE: 
PUBLISHED  BY  FIE-LDING  LUCAS  JR. 

138    MARKET    STREET. 


MURPHY  &  SPALDING,  PRINTERS. 


THE   PRELATES 

WHO  COMPOSED  THE  COUNCIL,  WERE: 

The  Most  Rev.  SAMUEL  ECCLESTON,  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 

The  Right  Rev.  JOHN  ENGLAND,  Bishop  of  Charleston. 

The  Right  Rev.  JOSEPH  ROSATI,  Bishop  of  St.  Louis. 

The  Right  Rev.  BENEDICT  JOSEPH  FENWICK,  Bishop  of  Boston. 

The  Right  Rev.  FRK^Cl^  PATRICK  KENRICK,  Bishop  of  Arath, 
in  partialis,  Coadjutor  to  the  Right  Rev.  HENRY  CONWELL,  Bishop  of 
Philadelphia;  and  Administrator  of  that  Diocess. 

T-AeiJi^MiJeu.  JOHN  B.  PURCELL,  Bishop  of  Cincinnati. 

The  Right  Rev.  GUY    IGNATIUS   CHABRAT,  Bishop  of  Bolina,  in 

^ar^iJiis,  and  Coadjutor  to  the  iJi^AiiJei;.  BENEDICT  JOSEPH  FLAGET,' 

Bishop  of  Bardstown.  , 

The  Right  Rev.  SIMON  GABRIEL  BRUTE.  Bishop  of  Vincennes. 

The  Right  Rev.  WllAAAM.  CLANCY,  Bishop  of  Orio,  in  partibus,  and 

Coadjutor  to  the  Right  Rev.  JOHN  ENGLAND,  Bishop  of  Charleston. 

The  Right  Rev.  ANTHONY  BLANC,  Bishop  of  New  Orleans. 

THE    ABSEliT    PRELATES   WERE 

*  The  Right  Rev.  BENEDICT  JOSEPH  FLAGET,  Bishop  of  Bardstown. 
t  The  Right  Rev.  JOHN  B.  M.  DAVID,  Bishop  of  Mauricastro,  in  par- 
tibus. 

'  X  The  Right  Rev.  HENRY  CONWELL,  Bishop  of  Philadelphia. 
§  The  Right  Rev.  JOHN  DUBOIS,  Bishop  of  New-York. 
II  The  Right  Rev.  MICHAEL  PORTIER,  Bishop  of  Mobile. 
U  The  Right  Rev.  FREDERICK  REZE,  Bishop  of  Detroit. 

*  Absent  in  Rome,  with  permission, 

t  Formerly  coadjutor  to  the  Bishop  of  Bardstown,  which  coadjutorship  he  resigned  on  aecount 
of  age  and  infirmity.  * 

t'Relired  from  active  duty,  having  lost  his  sight. 

§  Sent  a  proctor  with  a  letter  stating  the  cause  of  his  absence. 

II  Detained  on  his  journey  by  disappointment  of  conveyance. 

•JT  Arrived  in  Baltimore,  but  was  obliged  to  leave  the  city  on  urgent  business,  with  the  permis- 
sion of  the  council.  ' 


OFFICERS. 

P  n^^^-p^  «     5    rAe/2igA!!i?ra.B.  J.  FENWICK,  Bishop  of  Boston. 
i-ROMOTERS.    ^    ^^g  y^^.y  ^^^  LEWIS  DELUOL,  D.  D.  and  V.  G. 

Secretary.  TAe  J?ct.  EDWARD  DAMPHOUX,  D.  D.  St.  Peters  Balto. 

Assistant  do.   The  Rev.  CHARLES  WHITE,  Cathedral,  Baltimore. 

Master  op  Ceremonies.   The  Rev.  FRANCIS   L'HOMME,  St.   Mary's 

Baltimore. 

r-xx     rr^oc    5    TAe /?e-y.  JOHN  RAND  ANNE,  and 
i^HANTERs.  ^    rpj^^  ^g^  PETER  FREDET. 


CONSULTORS 

Invited  by  the  prelates,  to  aid  by  their  advice  in  the  congregations,  where 
the  several  questions  were  discussed  previous  to  their  decision  by  the  council. 

*    The  very  Reverend  Felix  Varela,  V.  G.  of  the  Diocess  of  New  York. 

The  very  Reverend  Lewjs  Deluol,  D.  D.  Superior  of  the  Sulpicians, 
Baltimore. 

The  very  Reverend  Father  William  M' Sherry,  Provincial  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  in  Marj'land. 

The  very  Reverend  Father  P.  Verh;egen,  Provincial  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
in  Missouri. 

The  Reverend  John  Hickey,  Superior  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity, 

The  Reverend  Thomas  Bdtler,  Superior  of  the  College  of  St.  Mary  near 

Emmitsburg. 

The  Reverend  John  J.  Chanche,  President^ 

of  St.  Mary's  College,  Baltimore.  '.Theologians  to  the  Archbishop 

The  Reverend  Peter  S.  Schreiber  of  the  [  of  Baltimore. 

Cathedral.  J 

t  to  the  Bishop  of  Charleston. 

The  Reverend  Regis  Loisel,  to  the  Bishop  of  St.  Louis. 

The  Reverend  Thomas  Mulledy,  S.  J.  Rector  of  Georgetown  College,  to  the 
Bishop  of  Boston. 

The  very  Reverend  Lewis  Debarth,  St.  John's,  Baltimore,  to  the  Bishop  of 
Arath. 

The  Reverend  Stephen  Theodore  Badin,  to  the  Bishop  of  Cincinnati. 

The  Reverend  Ignatius  A.  Reynolds,  of  Lousville,  to  the  Bishop  of  Bolina. 

The  very  Reverend  Pet^  R.  Kenrick,  St.  Marj^'s,  Philadelphia,  to  the 
Bishop  of  Vincennes. 

The  very  Reverend  John  Hoches,  St.  John's  Philadelphia,  to  the  Bishop  cf 
Orio. 

The  Reverend  Augustin  Varot,  to  the  Bishop  of  New  Orleans. 

*  Sent  as  his  Prorlor  by  the  Bishop  of  New  York,  with  such  powers  as  the  Council  might  see 
proper  to  ;icci>rd  to  him;  admitted,  as  proctor  with  a  consultive  voice. 

+  The  Bisliop  of  Charleston  not  meetine  upon  his  arrival  in  Baltimore,  from  Hayti,  where  he 
had  been  on  special  duty,  the  /fercrend  kichard  S.  Baker  of  Charleston  whom  he  had  desig- 
nated as  his  Thenlogian,'  invited  the  very  Reverend  John  Power,  D.  D.  and  V.  G.  of  New  York, 
who  was  unable  to  accept  the  invitation. 

The  lierereml  John  Bakuy,  Pastor  of  the  church  of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  Aut^ista,  Geo.  was 
designated  by  the  Bishop  of  Mobile  as  his  Theoloeian. 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


Reverend  brethren  of  the  Clergy, 

AND  BELOVED  OF  THE  LaITY: 

Peace  be  to  you,  and  faith  with  charity  from  God  the 
Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  the  conso- 
lations of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Assembled  to  consult  for  the  welfare  of  that  portion 
of  the  church  entrusted  to  our  care,  we  cannot  sepa- 
rate for  the  purpose  of  renewing  our  labours  amongst 
you,  without  yielding  to  an  impulse  that  we  feel  of 
addressing  to  jou  our  joint  exhortation, — We  are  daily 
more  and  more  consoled  in  witnessing  the  progress 
of  religion  amongst  you,  though  this  joy  is  mingled 
with  affliction  at  finding  how  much  remains  to  be  done, 
more  than  we  are  yet  able  to  perform;  as  also  at  be- 
holding the  various  obstacles  which  the  enemy  of  souls 
creates,  for  the  purpose  of  retarding  the  work  of  the  • 
Lord,  amongst  us. 

Amongst  these  obstacles  we  are  painfully  constrained 
to  notice  the  misrepresentation  and  persecution  to 
which  you  and  we  have  been  exposed  since  our  last 
council.  We  advert  to  this  topic  with  deep  regret: 
but  any  effort  on  our  part  to  conceal  from  the  world 
this  melancholy  fact,  to  which  its  perpetrators  have 
given  such  blazing  notoriety  would  be  equally  useless, 
as  the  attempt  to  disguise  those  feelings  with  which 
we  are  affected,  and  which  we  may,  by  God's  aid,  in  a 
great  degree  restrain,  but  which  it  is  not  in  our  power 
utterly  to  destroy. 

We  are  filled  with  regret  because  no  sacrifices  or 
exertions  that  we  could  make  woiild  be  sufficient  to 
prevent  the  baleful  consequences  which  must  neces- 
sarily flow  from  the  conduct  of  our  gainsayers,  and 
which  we  see  it  has  already  extensively  and  unhappily 
produced  in  our  republics.  The  affection  of  fellow- 
citizens  is  destroyed,  the  offices  of  charity  are  neglected 
the  kindly  intercourse  of  neighbours  has  been  inter- 
rupted, suspicion,  jealousy  and  hatred  have  succeeded 


6  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

to   confidence,  mutual  respect  and  affection;  the  de- 
mon of  discord  has  usurped  that  station  where  the  an- 
gel of  peace  abode:  and  that  day  has  gone  by,  when 
every  American  citizen  could  truly  say,  that  whatever 
may  be  the  religious  opinion  which  he  entertained,  or 
whatever  the  form  of  worship  which  he  followed,  he  en- 
joyed in  full  freedom  the  opportunity  of  securing  for 
himself  what  he  vindicated  for  others,  the  communion 
with  his  God  in  that  way  which  his  conviction  or  his 
taste  might  prefer.    It  has  even  been  loudly  proclaimed 
that  our  religion  should  not  enjoy  toleration  in  fact, 
whilst,  in  theory,  the  constitution  of  our  several  states, 
proclaim  to  the  world,  that  as  catholics,  we  have  the 
same  rights  respecting  religion  that  are  fully  and  peace- 
ably enjoyed  by  our  fellow-citizens  of  every  other  de- 
nomination, by  whatever  style  they  may  be  described 
whether  Christian,  Hebrew,  or  Unbeliever;  and  whilst 
the  constitution  of  our  federal  Government  in  addition 
declares,  that  "Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting 
the  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free 
exercise  thereof"  Yes,  beloved  brethren:  our  religious 
rights  are  secured  to  us  by  those  same  instruments 
which  secure  to  our  fellow-citizens  and  to  ourselves, 
all  those  other  valuable  possessions  which  have  been 
acquired  for  them  and  for  us,  by  the  lives,  by  the  for- 
tunes, and  the  sacred  honour  of  that  devoted  assembly 
who  though  widely  differing  in  religion,  yet  were  in 
love  of  country,  a  band  of  brothers.     And  he  who  would 
rashly  pluck  our  franchise  from  the  frame  of  the  con- 
stitution would  loosen  the  entire  mass  and  facilitate 
the  confusion  and  abstraction  of  the  remainder.    What- 
ever may  be  the  dispositions  or  efforts  of  those  whose 
misconduct  we  bewail  they  cannot  despoil  us  without 
insuring  the  general  ruin.     Our  regret  does  not  how- 
ever arise  from  any  apprehension  of  civil  disfranchise- 
ment of  ourselves,' but  we  lament  that  a  bad  spirit  has 
been  evoked,  and  that  its  pestilential  blasts  have  con- 
taminated our  atmosphere,  that  the  peace  of  society  is 
endangered,  the  domestic  circle  is  disturbed,  and  that 
charity  has  departed  from  amongst  us. 

But  when  we  look  abroad  and  observe  the  nations 
in  which  the  name  of  America  was  symbolic  of  brother- 
hood, and  whore  the  contemplation  of  our  peace  and 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  T 

of  our  prosperity  induced  statesmen  to  seek  their  cause, 
and  when  the  conviction  had  been  nearly  produced, 
that  these  blessings  were  the  result  of  our  wise  absti- 
nence from  persecution  for  the  sake  of  creed;  when  the 
admiration  and  the  respect  which  had  taken  possession 
of  men's   minds,  were  leading   them  to  imitate  our 
policy !  How  are  matters  changed  ? — Gratified  at  the 
exhibition  of  our  weakness  they  exult  in  our  shame 
and  they  predict  our  confusion  and  our  fall.     They 
avow  indeed  that,  blinded  by  prejudice  and  infuriated 
by  the  spirit  of  party  which  was  miscalled  religious 
zeal,  other  men  in  other  days,  made  upon  our  prede- 
cessors in  the  faith,  assaults  similar  to  those  now  made 
upon  us;  and  that,  when  under  its  influence  having  with 
the  gall  of  bitterness  indited  upon  their  statute  books 
laws  of  acrimony,  of  plunder  and  of  affliction,  they 
strove  by  new  misrepresentations  to  palliate  their  un- 
justifiable proceedings,  and  by  the  aid  of  falsehood  they 
sought  to  give  to  persecution  the  appearance  of  self 
protection.     Time,  investigation  and   reflection  have 
however  proved  to  the  children  the  injustice  of  their  , 
fathers  and  caused  them  to  purge  away  from  their  re- 
cords, not  only  in  this  countrj^but  in  England,  the  foul 
enactments  and  to  bear  honourable  testimony  to  the 
innocence  of  those  who  had  been  oppressed:  yet  it  is  at 
such  a  moment  as  this,  -when  Britain,  blushing  at  her 
former  folly  and  injustice  and  imitating  what  America, 
had  done  fifty  years  before,  abandons  her  false  position 
and  takes  an  honourable  rank  amongst  the  nations,, 
that  it  is  sought  to  drive  our  states  from  the  lofty  station 
which  they  have  hitherto  held,  to  that  place  of  degra- 
dation from  which  she  has  just  removed  :  and  we  are 
filled  with  regret  at  the  humiliation  to  which  a  land 
that  we  love  is  exposed,  when  they  who  once  admired 
it,  point  thereto,  asking  with  amazement;  how  it  can 
be  possible  for  men  of  reading  and  of  sagacity  to  be 
duped  at  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  by  charges  refuted 
in  Europe  more  than  a  century  since ;  abandoned  even 
by  the  party  which  originally  invented  them,  disbelieved 
by  every  one  who  has  the  most  moderate  pretensions 
to  information ;  charges  to  advance  which  even  in  an 
exceedingly  modified  shape,  requires  at  present,  the 
most  desperate  effort  of  the  boldest  and  most  interested 


8  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

partizans  of  a  body  now  making  its  mightiest  struggle 
for  existence.  The  people  of  other  nations  are  aston- 
ished at  beholding  those  charges  renewed  here,  in  lan- 
guage far  more  vulgar  and  obscene  than  ever  disgraced 
their  worst  exhibition  in  Europe.  We  avow  that  we 
witness  this  with  shame  and  with  regret,  and  the  pain 
which  we  feel  is  caused  not  by  any  apprehension  that 
the  falsehood  could  be  ultimately  received  as  truth, 
amongst  a  people,  who  however  they  may  be  led  astray 
for  a  moment,  will  always  return  to  examine  maturely 
that  in  which  they  are  interested,  but  we  are  mortified, 
that  because  of  this  unseemly  effort,  the  American  name 
may  be  exposed  to  reproach  when  it  had  been  hitherto 
respected. 

We  regret  this  spirit  of  misrepresentation  upon  other 
accounts ;  though  we  foresee  that  it  will  ultimately  pro- 
duce effects  beneficial  to  ourselves.  The  love  of  truth 
exists  amongst  our  fellow-citizens,  and  it  becomes  a 
more  fervid  attachment  when  the  effect  of  misrepre- 
sentation has  been  discovered :  yet  until  that  discovery 
is  made,  many  who  are  disposed  to  enter  upon  enquiry 
hesitate,  and  even  those  who  are  convinced  have  some 
reluctance  and  vacillation.  Misrepresentation  spreads 
a  thick  mist  around  the  vestibule  of  truth;  it  there  ex- 
hibits appalling  though  shadowy  forms  to  terrify  those 
who  would  approach.  And  we  regret  to  add  from  our 
positive  knowledge  that  it  is  not  by  phantoms  only  that 
the  approach  is  guarded;  for  though  the  laws  of  the 
land  do  not  arm  the  persecutor  with  the  sword,  yet  have 
the  contrivances  and  exertions  of  individuals  and  of 
associations,  in  many  instances,  supplied  this  deficiency 
by  their  ownacts  of  persecution. 

Yet  brethren  in  the  midst  of  those  trials  we  have 
received  much  comfort  from  the  God  of  all  consola- 
tion. This  very  misrepresentation  of  our  tenets  of 
our  principles  and  of  our  practices  exhibits  the  best 
proof  that  the  doctrine  which  we  believe  and  teach 
cannot  be  successfully  assailed  by  fair  argument  nor 
our  principles  rendered  odious  by  honest  exposition. 
It  is  therefore  that  forms  of  belief  which  we  reject 
as  absurd  are  imputed  to  us,  so  that  our  assailants  by 
refuting  them  may  obtain  the  semblance  of  a  victory 
over  us :  it  is  for  that  reason  that  practices  which  we 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  9 

abhor  are  charged  upon  us,  so  that  covered  with  a 
mantle  of  iniquity  which  we  detest,  we  may  be  held 
up  to  the  execration  of  a  people  desirous  of  paying  its 
just  tribute  to  virtue:  and  since  our  own  conduct  as 
citizens  was  not  liable  to  reproach,  it  was  deemed  re- 
quisite to  libel  the  governments  of  Europe  which  pro- 
fess our  faith,  and.  to  feign  imaginary  conspiracies  in 
order  to  excite  amongst  our  fellow-citizens  the  preju- 
dice of  the  thoughtless  and  the  fears  of  the  patriotic. 
Even  men  who  assumed  the  garb  of  religion  and  who 
affected  extraordinary  zeal  and  extravagant  piety  sent 
forth  to  the  public  as  solemn  truths,  statements  whose 
falsehood  they  could  have  easily  detected,  and  of  which 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  imagine  them  ignorant.  If 
they  who,  through  prejudice,  persuaded  themselves  that 
they  would  do  a  service  to  God  and  to  society  by  our 
extermination,  and  who  most  laboriously  sought  to 
accomplish  this  purpose,  had  convincing  proof  of  our 
being  involved  in  error  or  engaged  in  crime,  they 
would  have  unhesitatingly  produced  it;  and  this  proof, 
when  manifested,  would  have  made  its  due  impression 
upon  the  public  mind.  Our  assailants  wanted  neither 
the  will  nor  the  ability,  and  we  are  consoled  at  the 
evidence  which  their  failure  must  ultimately  give  to 
the  world,  of  the  truth  of  our  doctrines  and  the  cor- 
rectness of  our  principles. 

We  are  indeed  comparatively  few  amongst  the  mil- 
lions of  our  fellow-citizens;  the  greater  portion  of  our 
flocks  are  in  the  humble,  laborious,  but  useful  occu- 
pations of  life:  we  do  not  aspire  to  power,  we  do  not 
calculate  by  what  process  we  should  be  able^  at  some 
future  day,  to  control  the  councils  of  the  republic, 
neither  do  we  combine,  to  raise  the  members  of  our 
society  to  places  of  trust,  of  honor,  or  of  profit:  we 
seek  not  to  make  friends  for  our  church  by  exhibiting 
the  ability  of  our  party  to  reward  and  to  sustain  its 
benefactors;  but,  relying  upon  the  protection  of  our 
God,  we  endeavour  to  live  in  peace  with  our  brethren 
whilst  we  are  occupied  in  our  several  appropriate 
duties.  And  we  have  been  consoled  by  the  manifes- 
tation of  his  fatherly  care;  especially  when  our  assail- 
ants opened  their  mouth  and  would  seem  ready  to  de- 
stroy us :  the  number  of  our  friends  has  increased, 
2 


10  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

the  good  and  the  wise  and  the  reflecting  crowded 
around  us  for  our  defence:  though  they  dissented  from 
our  creed,  in  many  instances  they  have  generously 
vindicated  our  rights:  and  the  advantages  that  we  have 
gained  from  the  sympathy  and  the  affection  of  one 
portion  of  our  fellow-citizens,  has  more  than  compen- 
sated for  what  we  have  endured  from  the  hatred  of  the 
other.  Nor  will  this  be  the  term  of  those  beneficial  re- 
sults. Such  events  cannot  occur  in  the  midstof  a  people 
free,  educated  and  desirous  of  information,  without 
creating  enquiry.  Calm  and  unprejudiced  investiga- 
tion is  all  that  we  believe  to  be  necessary,  with  that 
grace  which  Heaven  is  always  ready  to  bestow,  for 
attaining  the  discovery  of  truth.  Many  have  already 
been  roused  to  enquiry;  several  misconceptions  have 
been  destroyed,,  various  early  and  long  standing  pre- 
judices have  been  laid  aside,  numberless  mistakes  have 
been  corrected,  a  spirit  of  examination  is  abroad  ;  we 
have  rejoiced  at  its  excitement,  because  we  have  felt 
its  beneficial  effects,  and  we  anticipate  still  happier 
consequences  from  its  continuation,  its  activity  and  its 
increase.  Thus,  always,  beloved  brethren,  our  kind 
and  providential  father,  blends  some  consolations  with 
his  chastisements. 

And  this  view  leads  us  to  the  consideration  of  our 
duty  under  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are  placed. 

"Take  up  your  yoke,"  said  our  blessed  Lord,  ''and 
learn  of  me  because  1  am  meek  and  humble  of  heart, 
and  you  shall  find  rest  to  your  souls."*  "Shall  not 
my  soul  be  subject  to  God  ?  for  from  him  is  my  salva- 
tion:"! Asks  the  royal  prophet,  and  he  answers,  "Be 
thou  0  my  soul  subject  to  God,  for  from  him  is  my 
patience. "J  And  when  in  another  place  he  prays 
"Deliver  me,  O  my  God  out  of  the  hand  of  the  sinner 
and  of  the  unjust,"  §  he  exiiibits  his  own  duty;  "for 
thou  art  my  patience,  0  Lord :  my  hope,  O  Lord,  from 
my  youth. "II  It  is  by  the  injustice  of  others,  that  the 
Lord  proves  and  makes  perfect  those  whom  lie  brings 
to  his  service ;  and  therefore  the  wise  man  exhorts  us : 
"Incline  thine  ear  and  receive  the  words  of  understand- 
ing, and  make  not  haste  in  the  time  of  clouds.  Wait  on 
God  with  patience :  join  thyself  to  God  and  endure, 

♦  Mall.  xi.  21).        iPs.lxi.  1.        tPs.  Ixi.  C.        STs.  l.\x.  4.      liPs.  Ixx.  5. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  11 

that,  thy  life  may  be  increased  in  the  latter  end.  Take 
all  that  shall  be  brought  upon  thee :  and  in  thy  sorrow 
endure,  and  in  thy  humiliation,  keep  patience.  For 
gold  and  silver  are  tried  in  the  fire,  but  acceptable 
men  in  the  furnace  of  humiliation."*-  The  merciful 
father  whom  we  serve,  requires  from  us  this  proof 
of  our  attachment,  and  he  so  orders  every  thing  in  his 
providence  as  to  produce  lasting  benefit  for  those  who, 
resigned  to  his  dispensation,  observe  his  injunction. 
Hence,  the  apostle  Peter  tells  us  to  be  "merciful,  modest, 
humble,  not  rendering  evil  for  evil,  nor  railing  for  rail- 
ing, but  contrariwise,  blessing,  for  unto  this  we  are  called 
that  we  may  inherit  a  blessing."f  And  in  answer  to  an 
objection  natural  to  most  men,  he  adds,  "And  who  is  he 
that  can  hurt  you  if  you  be  zealous  of  good.''  But  if  also 
you  suffer  any  thing  for  justice  sake;  blessed  are  you, 
and  be  not  afraid  of  their  fear,  and  be  not  troubled,  but 
sanctify  the  Lord  Christ  in  your  hearts,  *  *  *  that 
whereas  they  speak  evil  of  you,  they  may  be  ashamed 
who  falsely  accuse  your  good  conversation  in  Christ. 
For  it  is  better,  doing  well  (if  such  be  the  will  of  God,) 
to  suffer,  than  doing  ill,  because  Christ  also  died  once  for 
our  sins,  the  just  for  the  unjust.''^  Upon  the  same  prin- 
ciple St.  Paul  writes  to  the  Thessalonians,  "See  that 
none  render  evil  for  evil  to  any  man:  but  ever  follow  that 
wdiich  is  good  towards  each  other,  and  towards  all  men."^ 
These  injunctions  are  in  conformity  with  that  of  our  bles- 
sed Lord,  "Love  your  enemies,  do  good  to  them  that 
hate  you:  and  pray  for  them  that  persecute  and  calum- 
niate you,  that  you  may  be  children  of  your  Father  who 
is  in  heaven,  who  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  upon  the  good 
and  the  bad,  and  raineth  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust."|| 
The  best  refutation  which  we  can  oppose  to  the  slanders 
with  which  we  are  assailed  will  be  the  exhibition  of  the 
christian  virtues  in  our  conduct.  Let  your  lives  be  the 
answer  to  those  who  vituperate  us.  "Be  you  then  per- 
fect as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect;"*^  and  "Let  your 
light  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good 
works,  and  glorify  your  father  who  is  in  heaven."** 
Thus  will  you  insure  blessings  for  yourselves,  and,  per- 
haps, convert  your  opponents. — This,  beloved  brethren, 
is  the  vengeance  of  Christianity. 

*  Eccli.  ii.  2,  3,  4,  5.       1 1.  Pet.  iii.  8,  9.       1 1.  Pet.  iii-  13,  14,  15,  16,  17,  18. 
§  I.  Thess.  V.  15.     II  Matt,  v,  44,  45.    IT  Matt,  v,  4.        **  Matt.  v.  16. 


12  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

It  may  not  however  be  aiTiiss  for  us  here  to  record 
some  instances  of  the  misrepresentation  and  persecution 
which  have  called  forth  these  remarks. — We  shall  select 
but  two  out  of  many — The  first  is  the  destruction  of  the 
Ursuline  Convent  on  Mount  Benedict,  near  Boston,  on 
the  night  of  the  11th  of  August,  1834.  The  ruins  of  this 
establishment  yet  blacken  the  vicinity  of  Bunkers's  Hill, 
and  cast  a  dark  shade  upon  the  soil  of  Massachusetts. 
You  need  not  our  recital  of  the  dastardly  assault,  the  ex- 
tensive robbery,  the  deliberate  arson,  the  wanton  inso- 
lence, the  cold  cruelty  and  the  horrid  sacrilege  of  that 
awful  niffht. 

We  shall  quote  the  words  of  one  of  the  few  members 
of  the  legislature  of  that  State,  who  exhibited  them- 
selves an  honorable  exception  to  the  body  in  which 
they  were  found.  This  gentleman  told  them  upon 
their  floor.  "You  may  go  from  Maine  to  the  Gulph  of 
Mexico,  and  you  cannot  find  an  act  similar  to  this  —the 
destruction  of  an  institution  for  instruction,  inhabited 
by  females,  mostly  children;  religion  was  trampled 
upon;  the  Bible  was  destroyed;  the  tomb  was  broken 
open;  the  ashes  of  the  dead  were  insulted;  the  females 
were  driven  from  their  beds  at  midnight,  half  naked; 
whilst  the  mob  was  exulting,  shouting,  dancing  and 
triumphing  amongst  the  warm  ashes  of  the  ruin  which 
they  had  made,  amidst  a  community,  the  most  enlight- 
ened in  the  United  States;  ten  thousand  persons  were 
looking  on,  and  not  one  arm  was  raised  to  protect  these 
females  and  their  property.  If,  sir,  the  stain  of  blood 
is  not  upon  the  land,  the  stain  of  cruelty  is  there." 

It  was  planned  in  the  vicinity,  and  executed  within 
view  of  the  capital  of  the  New  England  States;  a  city 
which  aspired  to  the  character  of  liberality,  and  had 
an  ambition  to  be  ranked  amongst  the  seats  of  literature, 
of  science,  and  of  taste.  The  most  unfounded  calum- 
nies had  been  previously  circulated,  in  order  to  furnish 
a  pretext  to  achieve  what  had  been  plotted,  but  even 
this  pretext  had  been  removed,  for  the  local  magistracy 
had  examined  into  the  alleged  grounds,  and  declared 
themselves  fully  convinced  of  their  falsehood. 

In  this  case  therefore  there  was  a  blending  of  mis- 
representation and  of  persecution  of  the  worst  descrip- 
tion.— Would  to  God  that  we  could  rest  here!     But 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  13 

of  what  use  would  it  be  for  us  to  endeavour  to  hide 
that  which  has  astonished  distant  nations,  and  which 
a  thousand  pubUc  journals  have  spread  in  such  a 
variety  of  languages,  before  the  eyes  of  the  civilized 
world? — 

The  declaration  of  a  most  respectable  committee  ap- 
pointed at  a  public  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Boston,  to 
investigate  the  case,  after  the  destruction  had  been  per- 
petrated; having  refuted  the  calumnies  and  described  the 
outrage,  add  the  following  expression  of  their  sentiments: 

"  The  fact  that  the  dwelhng  of  inoffensive  females  and 
children,  guiltless  of  wrong  to  the  persons,  property  or 
reputation  of  others,  and  reposing  in  fancied  security, 
under  the  protection  of  the  law,  has  been  thus  assaulted 
by  a  riotous  mob,  and  ransacked,  plundered  and  burnt 
to  the  ground,  and  its  terrified  inmates,  in  the  dead  hour 
of  the  night  driven  from  their  beds  into  the  fields;  and 
that  this  should  be  done  within  the  limits  of  one  of  the 
most  populous  towns  in  the  commonwealth,  and  in  the 
midst  of  an  assembled  multitude  of  spectators;  that  the 
perpetrators  should  have  been  engaged  for  seven  hours 
or  more  in  the  work  of  destruction,  with  hardly  an  effort 
to  prevent  or  arrest  them;  that  many  of  them  should  af- 
terwards be  so  far  sheltered  by  public  sympathy  or 
opinion,  as  to  render  the  ordinary  means  of  detection 
ineffectual;  and  that  the  sufferers  are  entitled  to  no  legal 
redress  from  the  pubhc,  for  this  outrage  against  their 
persons  and  destruction  of  their  property,  is  an  event  of 
fearful  import,  as  well  as  of  the  profoundest  shame  and 
humiliation." 

And  this  declaration  was  followed  by  solemn  and  re- 
peated judicial  enquiries  and  trials,  in  the  process  of 
which,  however,  full  license  was  afforded  to  insult  the 
feelings  and  the  religion  of  that  community  whose  pro- 
perty was  destroyed  and  some  of  whose  members  died 
soon  after  the  hardships  which  they  suffered  on  the  oc- 
casion; whilst  miscreants  who  boasted  of  their  activity 
and  who  were  identified  by  most  respectable  witnesses, 
as  being  leaders  in  the  transaction,  were  not  only  judici- 
ally absolved,  but  were  rewarded  by  the  spontaneous 
contributions  of  that  public  which  thronged  round  .the 
court  of  justice,  to  rejoice  with  them  upon  their  deliver- 
ance.    For  our  own  part,  we  had  no  desire  for  their 


14  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

punishment;  but  we  feel  the  justice  of  an  opinion,  that 
has  been  frequently  expressed,  that  it  would  have  been 
infinitely  more  creditable  to  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
if  they  had  never  been  brought  to  trial. 

It  is  equally  notorious  that  notwithstanding  every  effort 
to  obstruct  the  expression  of  what  it  could  not  deny,  viz. 
the  innocence  of  our  religion  and  guilt  of  the  aggressors, 
the  legislature  of  that  State  was  fully  convinced  of  the 
falsehood  of  the  pretences  and  the  atrocity  of  the  outrage, 
and  it  declared  that  the  convent  was  destroyed  by  a  law- 
less and  ferocious  mob;  and  declared  that  it  "felt  itself 
bound  in  support  of  the  constitution,  and  in  vindication 
of  the  honor  of  the  commonwealth  to  declare  its  deliberate 
and  indignant  condemnation  of  such  an  atrocious  infrac- 
tion of  the  laws."  And  yet  we  must  avow  that  upon  read- 
ing the  list  of  the  enormous  majority  which  decided 
against  affording  any  redress  or  compensation,  ^ve  lament 
to  find  that  it  contains  names  which  we  did  not  expect 
to  see  upon  it.  And  if  the  continuation  of  the  same  con- 
duct be  evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  same  disposition, 
our  opinion  respecting  that  State  and  its  legislature  must 
continue  unchanged. 

In  a  committee  of  the  legislature,  appointed  to  consider 
the  petition,  for  compensation,  presented  by  the  sufferers, 
a  majority  reported  that  though  the  injured  persons  could 
not  claim  indemnity  for  their  losses  from  the  government 
as  a  matter  of  right,  yet,  to  enforce  respect  for  religious 
freedom,  and  the  security  of  life,  liberty,  property,  "as 
also  to  do  what  yet  may  be  done,  to  soften  the  reproach 
which  rests  upon  the  character  of  the  state,  by  reason  of 
the  aforesaid  outrage,"  a  gratuity  should  be  given. — A 
minority  of  the  committee  reported  against  granting  this 
relief;  sustaining  its  recommendation,  amongst  other 
grounds,  upon  the  following: — viz.  ^'•That  Catholics  ac- 
knowledging ^as  they  do^  the  supremacy  of  a  foreign  poten- 
tate or  power ^  could  not  claim  nnder  our  government  the 
protection  as  citizens  of  the  commonwealth^  hut  were  enti- 
tled only  to  our  countenance  and  aid  so  far  as  the  rites  of 
natiojial  hospitality  might  serve  to  dictate.'^ 

We  scarcely  need  observe  to  you,  that  this  passage 
opens  witii  wiiat  is  notoriously  untrue,  viz.  ''-That  we 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  a  foreign  potentate  or 
porver^''  in  that  sense  A\hich  can  interfere  with  our  duty 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  15 

as  citizens.  We  owe  no  religious  allegiance  to  any  State 
in  this  Union,  nor  to  its  general  government.  No  one 
of  them  claims  any  supremacy  or  dominion  over  us  in 
our  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical  concerns:  nor  does  it  claim 
any  such  right  or  power  over  any  of  our  fellow  citizens, 
of  what  soever  religion  they  may  be:  and  if  such  a  claim 
was  made,  neither  would  our  fellow  citizens,  nor  would  we 
submit  thereto.  They  and  we,  by  our  constitutional 
principles,  are  free  to  give  this  ecclesiastical  supremacy  - 
to  whom  we  please,  or  to  refuse  it  to  every  one,  if  we 
so  think  proper:  but,  they  and  we  owe  civil  and  political 
allegiance  to  the  several  States  in  which  we  reside,  and 
also,  to  our  general  government.  When,  therefore, 
using  our  undoubted  right,  we  acknowledge  the  spiritual 
and  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  the  chief  bishop  of  our 
universal  church,  the  Pope  or  bishop  of  Rome,  we  do  not 
thereby  forfeit  our  claim  to  the  civil  and  political  protec- 
tion of  th€  commonwealth;  for,  we  do  not  detract  from 
the  allegiance  to  which  the  temporal  governments  are 
plainly  entitled,  and  which  we  cheerfully  give;  nor  do  we 
acknowledge  any  civil  or  pohtical  supremacy,  or  power 
over  us  in  any  foreign  potentate  or  power,  though  that 
potentate  might  be  the  chief  pastor  of  our  church. 

Moreover,  it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  upon  preparing 
to  be  admitted  to  citizenship,  every  Catholic  emigrant 
distinctly  renounces  upon  oath,  all  allegiance  in  civil  and 
political  concerns  to  any  foreign  prince,  power,  state,  or 
potentate. 

The  passage  also  contains  another  manifest  falsehood 
and  absurdity,  viz.,  that  Catholics  cannot  claim  protec- 
tion under  our  government  as  citizens. — Now,  it  is  no- 
torious that  they  who  are  born  in  the  country  are  citizens 
by  the  fact  of  their  birth,  and  respecting  Catholic  emi- 
grants, the  government  fully  aware  of  their  spiritual 
and  ecclesiastical  relations  to  the  head  of  their  church, 
has  deliberately  admitted  them  to  become  citizens;  and 
therefore  it  is  manifestly  absurd  to  assert,  that  citizens 
can  not,  under  our  government,  claim  protection  in  that 
character  in  which  they  have  been  admitted  by  the  gov- 
ernment itself 

This  attempt  to  proclaim  the  members  of  our  church 
actually  deprived  of  their  rights  of  citizenship,  was  adding 
new  and  more  extensive  and  more  odious  persecution  to 


16  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

the  atrocity  of  the  cruel  sacrilege  for  which  they  refused 
redress,  and  although  the  majority  of  the  legislature  re- 
pudiated this  outrageous  and  absurd  passage;  yet,  by  an 
overwhelming  vote,  they  acceded  to  the  sentiments  of 
its  compilers,  in  withholding  compensation  and  to  the 
present  day,  the  Catholics  of  the  diocess  of  Boston  are 
left  without  redress,  notwithstanding  the  valueless  decla- 
ration of  the  legislature,  "  in  vindication  of  the  common- 
wealth, of  its  deliberate  and  indignant  condemnation  of 
such  an  atrocious  violation  of  the  laws." 

The  other  instance  which  we  would  specify  is  one 
which  though  exceedingly  to  be  lamented,  is  not  of 
a  novel  character.  It  is  the  developement  in  this 
country  of  a  spirit  which  has  during  ages  frequently 
manifested  itself  in  other  regions.  It  has  been  exhib- 
ited in  New-York,  principally  in  the  patronage  af- 
forded by  the  religious  teachers  of  highly  respectable 
bodies  of  our  fellow  citizens,  to  degraded  beings  of  the 
most  profligate  class,  who  calumniated  the  most  pure 
and  useful  institutions.  Did  not  the  history  of  other 
places  exhibit  to  us  similar  revolting  instances,  we 
should  indeed  question  the  posibility  of  what  we  have 
there  witnessed.  Men  reputed  to  have  understanding 
and  considered  to  be  of  good  character,  vouching  to 
the  world  for  the  correctness  of  charges  of  the  most 
atrocious  nature,  made  against  the  most  respectable 
clergymen  and  religious  communities,  whose  members 
have  during  more  than  a  century,  by  their  personal 
virtue,  by  their  public  charities  and  by  their  self  devo- 
tion, won  the  esteem  and  applause  not  only  of  the  mem- 
bers of  their  own  church  but  of  those  who  were  opposed 
thereto;  charges  which,  if  true,  involved  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  city  which  tolerated  the  existence  of  the 
criminals  against  whom  those  charges  were  made; 
charges,  which  necessarily  implicated  the  public  au- 
thorities of  Canada  and  the  whole  British  government, 
as  abettors  of  the  grossest  crimes;  charges  whose  false- 
hood was  exposed  by  American  Protestants,  the  im- 
possibility of  whose  truth  was  attested  b)'-  Canadian 
Protestants,  and  whose  imputation  was  indignantly  re- 
jected by  both.  Yet  has  the  world  witnessed  those 
charges  again  brought  forward  with  unblushing  front, 
by  obscure  impostors  of  the   most  vile  description, 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  IT 

whose  notorious  profligacy  has  been  testified  by  the 
voice  of  the  city  which  they  polluted  and  slandered; 
beings  in  whom  it  was  hard  to  sa)-  whether  vice,  or 
recklessness,  or  insanity  predominated;  and  those 
charges  sustained,  perhaps  suggested,  and  pertinacious- 
ly adhered  to  after  the  demonstration  of  their  absurdity, 
by  men  whose  station  supposes  intelligence  and  in 
tegrity. 

In  making  the  effort  to  persuade  ourselves  that  men 
of  this  class  were  imposed  upon  and  continued  to  be 
the  dupes  of  such  wretched  beings,  what  a  picture 
of  human  weakness  do  we  contemplate?  Yet  assent- 
ing to  this  supposition,  we  may,  perhaps,  be  able  to 
account  for  the  general  exertions  made  by  the  pulpit 
and  the  press,  to  exhibit  us  as  what  we  are  not,  and  to  ex- 
cite against  us  unmerited  hostility  and  persecution. 
We  should,  moreover,  in  this  extraordinary  supposi- 
tion, cease  to  be  astonished  at  the  credulity  and  delu- 
sion of  many  of  our  fellow  citizens,  and  we  could 
imagine  some  cause  for  that  want  of  charity  in  our 
regard,  whose  prevalence  we  witness  and  deplore. 

Yet,  whatever  allowances  we  may  feel  disposed  to 
make  in  favor  of  those  who  persecute  and  calumni- 
ate us  and  who  speak  all  manner  of  evil  falsely  con- 
cerning us,  we  must  point  out  two  exceedingly  bad 
consequences  of  this  misrepresentation.  The  first  is 
the  extensive  corruption  of  morality ;  the  other  is  the 
encouragement  of  unbelief. 

Nothing  is  more  surely  calculated  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  that  purity  which  is  the  soul  of  virtue,  than  the 
perusal  of  lascivious  tales;  and  never  did  the  most  un- 
principled author  compile  any  work  more  foul  in  this 
respect,  than  the  productions  of  our  assailants,  and 
never  was  there  exhibited  a  more  voracious  appetite 
for  mischievous  aliment  than  that  which  they  have 
unfortunately  excited.  With  what  avidity  have  not 
the  numerous  and  heavy  editions  of  those  immodest 
fictions  been  taken  up,  disseminated  through  the  coun- 
try, purchased  and  introduced  in  the  name  of  religion 
amongst  the  aged  and  the  young  of  both  sexes,  in  every 
state  and  territory  of  our  Union?  "The  father  waketh 
for  the  daughter  when  no  man  knoweth,  'says  the 
wise  man,  in  the  book  of  inspiration,'  and  the  care  for 
3 


18  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

her  taketh  away  his  sleep  *  *  in  her  virginity,  lest 
she  should  be  corrupted,  and  having  a  husband,  lest 
she  should  misbehave  herself."*  And  yet  he  places 
these  obscene  libels  in  her  hands  as  books  of  religious 
instruction!  "Hedge  in  thine  ears  with  thorns;  hear 
not  a  wicked  tongue,"t  was  one  of  his  admonitions. 
"On  a  daughter  that  turneth  not  away  herself,  set  a 
strict  watch:  lest  finding  an  opportunity  she  abuse 
herself:  take  heed  of  the  impudence  of  her  eyes  and 
wonder  not  if  she  slight  thee."  J  Here  we  perceive  the 
consequence  of  allowing  the  imagination  to  be  con- 
taminated by  familiarity  with  dangerous  reading. 
And  we  are  persuaded  that  the  cause  of  pure  morality 
and  the  security  of  domestic  happiness  have  seldom 
been  more  grievously  injured,  than  by  the  contrivers 
and  the  abettors  of  those  indecent  falsehoods,  which  in 
the  name  of  religion  are  promulgated  against  our  in- 
stitutions. Affecting  the  guardianship  of  virtue,  they 
undermine  its  foundations. 

The  effort  for  our  destruction  is  a  charge  against 
five-sixths  of  the  christian  world.  It  is  not  a  charge 
made  exclusively  upon  those  of  our  church,  who  in  the 
various  parts  of  the  globe  form  a  body  of  fully  two- 
thirds  of  the  whole  number  that  profess  the  religion  of 
the  Saviour;  but  it  is  an  accusation  against  all  those 
who,  though  separated  from  our  communion,  believe  in 
those  doctrines  and  adhere  to  those  practices  which 
the  compilers  of  those  libels  proclaim  to  be  antichris- 
tian ;  and  when  their  numbers  are  added  to  ours,  the 
aggregate  is  at  least  the  amount  that  we  have  stated. 
What  an  encouragement  is  it  then,  to  the  opponents  of 
Christianity  when  our  revilers  proclaim  that  five-sixths 
of  the  christian  world  are  immoral  hypocrites  or  the 
dupes  of  such  monsters  of  iniquity  ?  Yet  such  is  the 
accusation  seriously  made!  We  have  then,  since  the 
production  of  those  charges,  and  we  believe,  encour- 
aged by  their  promulgation,  beheld  organized  bands  of 
unbelievers,  systematically  arrayed,  occupying  the 
ground  thus  yielded  to  them  by  those  who  affect  such 
zeal  for  Christianity ;  we  have  seen  them  celebrating 
with  anticipated  but  indeed  premature  triumph  the 
destruction  of  the  christian  name.     How  will  our  ac- 

•  Eccli.  xlii.  9, 10.        +  Eccli.  xxviii.  2,  8.        t  Eccli.  .xxvi.  13,  14. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  19 

cusers  dislodge  them  from  their  position,  when  they 
exultingly  proclaim  that  the  principles  and  practice  of 
five-sixths  of  the  christian  world  during  three  centu- 
ries; and  of  entire  Christendom,  during  the  preced- 
ing ages,  have  been  grossly  corrupt,  necessarily  de- 
moralizing, and  in  direct  opposition  to  what  they  call 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  ? 

We  shall  dwell  no  longer  upon  this  painful  subject. 
We  have  before  us  the  admonition  of  the  Saviour,  '•  if 
the  world  hate  you,  know  ye  that  it  hated  me  before 
you.  If  you  had  been  of  the  world,  the  world  would 
love  its  own  :  but  because  you  are  not  of  the  world,  but 
I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore  the  world 
hateth  you.  Remember  my  word  that  I  said  to  you : 
the  servant  is  not  greater  than  his  master,  if  they 
have  persecuted  me  they  will  also  persecute  you; 
if  they  have  kept  my  word  they  will  keep  yours  also. 
But  these  things  will  they  do  to  you  for  my  name's 
sake,  because  they  know  not  him  who  sent  me."* 
"  These  things  I  have  spoken  to  you  that  in  me  you 
may  have  peace.  In  the  world  you  shall  have  distress : 
buthave  confidence,  I  have  overcome  the  world."!  We 
claim  protection  from  the  laws  of  our  country ;  we  have 
the  sympathy  of  a  large  portion  of  our  fellow-citizens ; 
our  trials  will  have  an  end,  and  like  our  divine  Saviour 
we  too  shall  overcome  the  world  ;  but  our  victory  is  to 
be  achieved  not  by  the  arm  of  the  flesh  but  by  the 
sword  of  the  spirit  and  the  might  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 
"In  our  patience  we  must  possess  our  souls." J  Our 
forefathers  in  the  faith,  the  immediate  disciples  of  the 
Saviour,  the  apostles  themselves,  were  vilified,  mis- 
represented and  suffered  patiently  for  sake  of  him  who 
for  their  sake  was  made  willingly  a  victim  upon  the 
cross.  The  apostle  of  nations  says  "  we  are  fools  for 
Christ's  sake,  *  *  even  unto  this  hour  we  both  hun- 
ger and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  we  are  buffetted,  and 
have  no  fixed  abode,  and  we  labour  working  with 
our  own  hands :  we  are  reviled  and  we  bless,  we  are 
persecuted  and  we  suffer  it,  v^^e  are  blasphemed  and 
we  entreat;  we  are  made  as  the  refuse  of  this  world, 
the  offscouring  of  all  even  until  now."§  In  his  second 
epistle  to  his  beloved  Timothy  he  assures  him  that 

♦John  XV.  18,  19,20,  21.    tJohn  xvii.  33.    tLuke  xxi.  19.    §1.  Cor.  iv.  10, 
II,  12,  13. 


20  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

"  all  that  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  shall  suifer 
persecution"*  Whence  the  prince  of  the  apostles, 
Peter,  admonishes  his  flock.  "  Let  none  of  you  suffer 
as  a  murderer,  or  a  thief,  or  a  railer,  or  a  coveter  of 
other  men's  things :  but  if  as  a  christian,  let  him  not 
be  ashamed,  but  let  him  glorify  God  in  this  name,"t 
and  therefore  we  read  of  this  apostle  and  his  associate, 
in  the  Acts:  that  when  they  w^ere  scourged  "  they  in- 
deed went  from  the  presence  of  the  council  rejoicing 
that  they  were  accounted  worthy  to  suffer  reproach  for 
the  name  of  Jesus."|  Thus  in  every  age,  from  that  pe- 
riod to  the  present,  we  find  that  in  some  region  or  other 
does  the  Lord  call  upon  some  of  his  followers  to  endure 
mockery  and  reproof  and  even  death  for  his  sake,  but 
every  where  we  find  that  not  only  is  the  blood  of  the 
martyr  the  enrichment  of  the  soil  of  Christianity,  but 
the  imitation  of  the  meekness  of  the  Saviour  by  the 
professor  of  his  law,  is  the  edification  of  the  world  and 
the  triumph  of  religion.  Let  the  models  here  proposed 
be  then  examples  for  our  imitation.  Let  the  maxims 
here  inculcated  be  the  rules  of  our  conduct,  and  we 
shall  walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  in  which  we  are  call- 
ed, and  of  the  saints  with  whom  we  are,  by  our  d  c- 
trine,  associated. 

Far  be  it  from  us,  beloved  brethren,  even  were  it  in 
our  power,  to  seek  the  injury  of  those  persons  by  whom 
we  are  assailed.  They  who  belong  not  to  the  house- 
hold of  the  faith  are  daily  called  from  the  east  and 
from  the  west,  to  be  seated  at  the  tables  from  which  not 
only  were  they  estranged  but  to  which  they  had  de- 
clared hostility.  How  many  such  glorious  conversions 
have  we  not  witnessed?  And  has  it  not  been  so  from 
the  beginning?  '•  Saul  as  yet  breathing  out  threaten- 
ings  and  slaughter  against  the  disciples  of  the  Lord, 
went  to  the  high  priest,  and  asked  of  him  letters  to 
Damascus  to  the  synagogues  that  if  he  found  any  men 
or  women  of  this  way  he  might  bring  them  to  Jerusa- 
lem.''^  Yet  the  Lord  declared  to  Ananias  "this  man 
is  to  me  a  vessel  of  election  to  carry  my  name  before 
kings  and  gentiles  and  the  children  of  Israel,  for  I  will 
shew  him  how  great  things  he  must  suffer  for  my  name's 
sake."^[  And  how  nobly  did  he  fulfil  his  glorious  commis- 
sion?    Yet  when  "the  witnesses  laid  down  their  gar- 

*I.  Tim.  iii.  13.     1 1.  Peler  iv.  15,  16.    t  Acts  v.  41.    §  Acts  ix.  I,  2.  ITActs 
ii.  15'  16. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  21 

ments  at  the  feet  of  a  young  man  whose  name  was  Saul 
and  who  was  consenting  to  the  death  of  Stephen"*  whilst 
they  stoned  him ;  did  not  this  Saul  stand  forth  as  the  pro- 
minent persecutor  oi"  our  holy  religion  ?  How  was  God 
glorified  and  the  church  aided  by  his  conversion?  How 
noble,  how  becoming  was  the  demeanor  of  the  first 
martyr  of  the  church,  when  imitating  the  example  of  his 
master,  whilst  he  was  overwhelmed  by  the  missiles  of  his 
foes,  he  besought  his  Saviour,  saying,  "  0  Lord  lay  not ' 
this  sin  to  their  charge  ?"t  And  the  prayer  of  Stephen 
gave  a  Paul  to  Christianity.  Beloved  brethren,  his  con- 
duct is  the  exhibition  of  our  duty. 

We  now,  brethren,  address  you  with  affectionate  interest 
upon  another  topic.  We  are  gratified  by  the  spiritual  pro- 
gress of  numbers,  but  deeply  affected  by  the  neghgence 
of  too  many  who,  however  sound  may  be  their  faith,  yet 
do  not  reduce  their  principles  to  practice.  We  are 
aware  of  the  many  difficulties  which  exist,  because  of 
the  fewness  of  the  clergy,  the  remoteness  of  churches^ 
the  sparseness  of  the  flocks,  and  a  variety  of  other  causes. 
Yet,  brethren,  we  are  constrained  to  say,  that  there  exists 
much  room  for  some  reproof  because  of  negligence  even 
where  those  obstacles  are  not  found.  Attend,  we  en- 
treat you,  to  the  admonition  of  St.  James:  "Be  ye  doers 
of  the  word  and  not  hearers  only,  deceiving  your  own 
selves.  For  if  a  man  be  a  hearer  of  the  word  and  not 
a  doer  he  shall  be  compared  to  a  man  beholding  his  own 
countenance  in  a  glass.  For  he  beheld  himself  and  went 
his  way,  and  presently  forgot  what  manner  of  man  he  was. 
But  he  that  hath  looked  into  the  perfect  law  of  Hberty, 
and  hath  continued  therein,  not  becoming  a  forgetful 
hearerbuta  doerof  thework;  this  man  shall  be  blessed  in- 
deed.'"! And  again,  "  For  even  as  the  body  without  the 
spirit  is  dead,  so  also  faith  without  works  is  dead."^  We 
have  noticed  with  regret  that  even  where  the  belief  of 
doctrine  was  in  full  vigour,  the  duties  of  religion  were 
not  always  regularly  fulfilled,  but  yielding  to  the 
tempter  or  corrupted  by  evil  communication;  even 
they  who  professed  the  word  of  truth  rejected  wis- 
dom and  discipline,  and  wearied  themselves  in  the 
way  of  iniquity  and  destruction.  And  whilst  we  are 
consoled  and  edified  by  the  visible  increase  of  piety 
with  which  our  regions  have  been  blessed,  we  would 

*  Acts  vii,  57.   t Acts  vii.  59,  .    JJames  i.  22,  23,  24,  25.    §James  ii.  26. 


2ft  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

call  earnestly  upon  those  who  as  yet  seem  insensible. 
We  would  lay  before  them  the  assurance  of  the  Lord 
by  this  prophet:  "But  if  the  wicked  do  penance  for 
all  his  sins  which  he  hath  committed,  and  keep  all  my 
commandments,  and  do  judgment  and  justice  living, 
he  shall  live  and  he  shall  not  die.  I  will  not  remem- 
ber all  his  iniquities  that  he  hath  done  :  in  his  justice 
which  he  hath  wrought  he  shall  live.  It  is  not  my  will 
that  a  sinner  shall  die,  saith  the  Lord  God,  and  not 
that  he  should  be  converted  from  his  ways  and  live  ?"* 
Well  may  we  address  such  of  you  as  have  been  un- 
wise, in  this  tender  strain  of  invitation  used  by  the 
Lord  himself:  "Be  converted  and  do  penance  for  all 
your  iniquities  and  iniquity  shall  not  be  your  ruin. 
Cast  away  from  you  all  your  transgressions,  bj''  which 
you  have  transgressed,  and  make  to  yourselves  a  new 
heart  and  a  new  spirit,  and  why  will  you  die,  O  house 
of  Israel  ?  For  I  desire  not  the  death  of  him  that 
dieth,  saith  the  Lord  God  ;  return  ye  and  live."t  To 
those  who  feel  that  they  have  "  wearied  themselves  in 
the  way  of  iniquity  and  destruction  and  have  walked 
through  hard  ways,  but  the  way  of  the  Lord  they  have 
not  known."  J  The  Saviour  specially  addresses  those 
affectionate  words :  ''Come  to  me  all  you  that  labour 
and  are  heavy  burdened,  and  I  will  refresh  you."§. 

We  should  all  exert  ourselves  to  establish  the  do- 
minion of  religion  in  our  soals.  The  end  thereof  is,  by 
serving  God  in  the  manner  that  he  desires,  to  eradi- 
cate vice  and  purify  ourselves  from  sin.  Born  children 
of  wrath,  dead  in  our  offences  and  sins,  we  can  be 
raised  up  and  quickened  only  through  the  exceeding 
charity  wherewith  he  loves  us  and  gives  us  the  abun- 
dant riches  of  his  grace  in  his  bounty  towards  us  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

Religion  is  not  satisfied  with  the  mere  rooting  out 
of  vice,  there  must  be  efforts  to  do  positive  good.  It 
is  therefore  that  the  Lord  says,  by  the  prophet  Isaias, 
"Wash  yourselves,  be  clear,  take  away  the  evil  of  your 
devices  from  my  eyes:  cease  to  do  perversely:  learn  to 
do  well,''^  and  to  the  same  effect  the  apostle  St. 
Peter  tells  him  that  will  love  life  and  see  good  days, 
'•Let  him  decline  from  evil,  and  do  good,  let  him  seek 

♦Ezec.xviii.  21,  2-2,23.  tEzec.  xviii.  30,  31,32.  t  Wisd.  v.  7.  §  Mat.  xi.  28. 
IT  Isaias,  i.  16,  17. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  m 

after  peace  and  pursue  it.  Because  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord  are  upon  the  just,  and  his  ears  unto  their  prayers: 
but  the  countenance  of"  the  Lord  is  upon  them  that  do 
evil  things."*  Upon  tiie  same  principle  it  is  declared 
by  Ezekiel,!  that  besides  doing  penance  for  all 
his  sins  which  he  hath  committed,  the  wicked  man 
should  "Keep  all  good  commandments  and  do  judg- 
ment and  justice,"  if  he  would  obtain  life,  and  again,J 
and  when  the  wicked  turneth  himself  from  his 
wickedness  which  he  hath  wrought,  and  doeth  judg- 
ment and  justice:  he  shall  save  his  soul  alive."  The 
beloved  disciple  St.  John,  assures  us,§.  that  "he 
that  doth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for  ever;"  and 
again,  ||  "Know  yc  that  every  one  also,  who  doth 
justice  is  born  of  God;"^  "Little  children,  let  no 
man  deceive  you.  He  that  doth  justice  is  just,  even 
as  God  is  just:"  farther,**  "And  whatsoever  we 
shall  ask  we  shall  receive  of  him:  because  we  keep  his 
commandments,  and  do  those  things  which  are  pleas- 
ing in  his  sight. "t+  "For  this  is  tlie  charity  of  God, 
that  we  keep  his  commandments. 

The  religious  man  then  not  only  refrains  from  evil 
but  he  does  good;  he  not  only  oifends  no  man,  but  en- 
deavours, as  far  as  he  is  able,  to  do  service  to  every 
one:  he  not  only  purifies  himself  and  his  dwelling  from 
the  filth  of  iniquity,  but  he  enriches  his  abode  and  de- 
corates his  soul  with  ornaments  of  virtue.  In  his  re- 
lation to  society^  he  endeavours  to  do  unto  others  as 
he  would  be  done  by^  not  only  is  he  strictly  just,  but 
he  is  kind,  merciful,  compassionate,  and  charitable. 
To  the  state  he  is  loyal,  faithful,  obedient  and  attached, 
using  those  rights  which  he  possesses,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  party,  nor  for  the  private  emolument  of  himself 
or  of  his  friends,  but  for  the  general  welfare  and  advan- 
tage; discharging  the  duties  of  any  office  in  which  he 
may  be  placed,  not  capriciously,  nor  negligently,  nor 
influenced  by  prejudice,  or  by  partiality;  but  honestly 
Mdthout  fear  or  favour,  or  affection,  for  the  welfare  of 
the  people,  the  credit  of  the  state  and  the  approbation 
of  his  God.  To  his  neighbours  he  is  attentive,  concil- 
iating, respectful  and  useful:  for  his  family  industrious, 
affectionate  and  devoted,   he  feels  the  responsibility 

*  I.  Pet.  iii.  11,  12.    txviii.  21.    txviii.  28.    §  I.  John,  ii.  16.    II  I.  John,  ii. 
29.    IF  I.  John,  iii.  7.    **  I.  John,  iii.  22.    +t  I.  John,  v.  3. 


24  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

under  which  he  is  placed  of  guarding  their  health,  of 
providing  for  their  wants,  of  promoting  their  interest, 
of  securing  their  prosperity,  of  watching  over  their 
education  of  superintending  their  discipUne,  of  culti- 
vating their  minds,  of  regulating  their  morals,  of  win- 
ning their  hearts  to  the  love  of  virtue,  and  of  leading 
them  by  his  example  in  the  path  to  heaven.  These, 
beloved  brethren  are  the  important  objects  to  which 
your  earliest  and  most  assiduous  care  should  be  de- 
voted. And  doing  these  things,  you  shall  through  the 
merits  of  your  blessed  Saviour  obtain  that  glorious  in- 
heritance which  he  has  purchased  for  you  at  the  price 
of  his  blood,  and  the  attainment  of  which  is  the  chief 
object  of  religion. 

But  to  secure  this  desirable  end,  ^ve  must  use  the  pro- 
per means:  and  first,  beloved  brethren,  we  would  remind 
you,  that  "our  confidence  must  be  through  Christ  towards 
God,"*  for  "we  are  not  sufficient  to  think  any  thing  of  our- 
selves, as  of  ourselves;  but,  our  sufficiency  is  from  God."t 
Who  hath  delivered  us  from  the  powers  of  darkness  and 
hath  translated  us  into  the  kingdom  of  the  son  of  his  love; 
in  whom  we  have  redemption  through  his  blood  for  the 
remission  of  sins.  *  *  *  J  "and  through  him  to  recon- 
cile all  things  unto  himself,  making  peace  through  the 
blood  of  his  cross,  both  as  to  things  in  earth,  and  things 
in  heaven."  It  is  therefore  that  we  can  have  "peace 
with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." §  "For 
if  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God 
by  the  death  of  his  son:  much  more  being  reconciled, 
shall  we  be  saved  by  his  life  and  not  only  so,  but  we 
also  glory  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by 
whom  we  have  received  reconciliation."  ||  For  it 
is  impossible,  that  with  the  blood  of  oxen  and  goats, 
sins  should  be  taken  away,  wherefore,  when  he  cometh 
into  the  world  he  saith,  "sacrifice  and  oblation  thou 
wouldest  not:  but,  a  body  thou  hast  fitted  to  me:  holo- 
causts for  sindid  not  please  thee:  then,  said  I,  be- 
hold I  come,  in  the  head  of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me, 
that  I  should  do  thy  will  0  God  *  *  *  *  In  the 
which  will  we  are  sanctified  by  the  oblation  of  the  body 
of  Jesus  Christ  once."Tl     But  how  once  at  the  end  of 

*II.  Cor.  iii.  5.      +  Coloss.  i.  13,  14.     ti.  20.    §  Rom.  v.  10,  11.    llHeb.x. 
4,  5,  6,  7,  10.    U  Heb.  ix.  26. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  25 

ages  he  hath  appeared  for  the  destruction  of  sin  by  the 
sacrifice  of  himself.  Therefore  did  the  apostle  St.  Peter 
testify.*  "This  is  the  stone  which  was  rejected  by  you 
the  builders:  which  is  become  the  head  of  the  corner: 
neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other.  For  there  is  no 
other  name  under  heaven  given  to  man  whereby  w^e  must 
be  saved."  Thus  it  is  through  the  redemption  by  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  must  have  access  to  God  for 
the  remission  of  sins,  and  the  grace  to  advance  in  virtue. 
And  this  must  be  done  by  the  belief  of  those  doctrines 
which  he  has  revealed,  for  the  apostle  assures  us  that 
"without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  God:  for  he  that 
Cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is 
a  rewarder  to  them  that  seek  him."f  This  was  but  pub- 
lishing what  the  Saviour  himself  had  declared,  in  that 
beautiful  prayer  which  he  addressed  to  his  father  at  the 
termination  of  the  discourse  which  he  made  to  his  disci- 
ples when,  about  to  be  taken  from  them,  his  affection  was 
exhibited  in  extraordinary  tenderness  of  expressions.| 
"Now  this  is  eternal  life,  that  they  may  know  thee  the 
only  and  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast 
sent."  And  to  this  end  he  besought,§.  "Sanctify  them  in 
truth:  thy  word  is  truth."  ||"And  not  for  them  only  do 
I  pray,  but  for  them  also  who  through  their  word  shall 
believe  in  me:*n  that  they  may  all  be  one  as  thoii,  father 
in  me,  and  I  in  thee:  that  they  may  also  be  one  in  us." , 
St.  Paul  exhibits  to  us  the  manner  in  which  this  apostolic 
testimony  is  given,  as  the  foundation  of  faith,  so  that  per- 
sons may  be  brought  through  the  word  of  those  apostles  to 
believe  in  Christ.**  "For  whosoever  shall  call  upon  the 
name,  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved.  How  then  thall  they 
call  upon  him  in  whom  they  have  not  believed.''  Or  how 
shall  they  beheve  him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard,  and 
how  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher  ?  And  how  shall 
they  preach  unless  they  be  sent  ?  As  it  is  written.  How 
beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  of 
peace,  of  them  that  bring  the  tidings  of  good  things  ! 
But  all  donotobey  the  gospel.  For  Isaias  saith:  "Lord 
who  hath  believed  our  report?  Faith  then  cometh  by 
hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of  Christ."  And  we 
find  it  recorded  in  the  Acts,  ft  that  Christ  declared 

*  Acts,  iv.  U,  12.      t  Heb.  xi.  6.      t  John,  xvii.  3.      §  v.  17.    II  30.    IT  21. 
«*  Rom.  X.  13,  14,  15, 16,  17.    tt  Acts,  i.  8. 

4  -         . 


26  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

to  those  apostles,  "You  shall  receive  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  coming  upon  you,  and  you  shall  be  wit- 
nesses unto  me  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea  and 
Samaria,  and  even  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 
St.  Matthew  informs  us  of  what  things  they  whereto 
testify*   "And  Jesus  coming,    spoke   to   them,   say- 
ing, all  power  is  given  to  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth. 
Going  therefore  teach  ye  all  nations,  baptizing  them 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  what- 
soever I  commanded  you:  and  behold,  I  am  with  you 
all  days  to  the  end  of  the  world."     But  as  they  were 
a  very  limited  number,  they  could  not  teach  all  nations, 
by  their  mere  personal  exertions;  and  since  they  were 
mortal,  they  could  not  continue  teaching  all  days  to  the 
endof  the  world.  To  effect  what  he  directed,  therefore,  he 
communicated  to  them  the  power  of  extending  to  others 
that  authority  which  was  contained  in  their  own  com- 
mission; as  he  came  forth,  sent  by  his  father,  not  mere- 
ly to  instruct  by  his  personal  teaching,  but  to  consti- 
tute other  witnesses,  with  authority  to  testify  by  their 
teaching  what  he  had  said  and  done;  wherefore  St. 
John  informs  us,f  "The  disciples  therefore  were  glad 
when  they  saw  the  Lord,  He  therefore  said  to  them 
again,  peace  be  to  you,  as  the  father  sent  me,  so  I  also 
send  you."     In  the  same  gospel  we  are  instructed  by 
himself  of  the  manner  in  which  the  father  sent  him. 
f'For  I  have  not  spoken  of  myself,  but  the  Father 
who  sent  me,  he  gave  me  commandment  what  1  should 
say,  and  what  I  should  speak,  and  I   know  that  his 
commandment  is  life  everlasting.     The  thingrs  there- 
fore  that  I  speak,  even  as  the  father  said  unto  me  do 
I  speak."     Thus  we  find  the  apostles  fulfilling  his 
views  by  immediatel}''  associating  several  well  instruct- 
ed members  of  the  faithful  into  their  commission,  or- 
daining them  to  be  their  co-operators  for  the  purpose 
of  spreading  abroad  the  good  tidings  into  every  nation, 
and  of  perpetuatint^  tlie  testimony  to  the  end  of  the 
world.     Thus  St.  Paul  directs  Timothy,^  '-The  things 
which  thou  hast  heard  of  me  by  many  witnesses,  the 
same  command  to  faithful  men  who  may  be  fit  to  teach 
others  also."     And  to  Titus  he  writes,  ||  "For  this  cause 
I  left  thee  in  Crete  that  thou  shouldest  set  in  ordei: 

•  xxviii.  18,  19,  20.    txx.iJ0  21.    t  xii.  49,  50,  §  II.  Tim.  ii.2.-  II  i.  5. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  2f 

the  things  that  are  wanting  and  shouldest  ordain  priests 
in  every  city."  And  this  had  been  so  extensively  ac- 
complished in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  that  St.  Paul 
proclaims,*  ''But  I  say,  have  they  not  heard  ?  Yes  verily, 
their  sound  hath  gone  forth  into  all  the  earth,  and  their 
words  unto  the  ends  of  the  whole  world."  And  there- 
fore it  was  only  required  to  continue  in  the  same  man- 
ner, and  upon  the  same  principle  to  perpetuate  the 
teaching  body,  by  securing  in  the  same  manner  tlie 
continuation  of  its  members;  and  this  has  been  evident- 
ly done,  even  to  this  day,  by  preserving  the  succession 
of  the  bishops  of  the  church  in  communion  with  the 
successor  of  that  apostle,  to  whom  the  Saviour  declar- 
'ed,t  "behold  Satan  hath  desired  to  have  you,  that  he 
may  sift  you  as  wheat;  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee  that 
thy  faith  fail  not:  and  thou  being  once  converted,  con- 
firm thy  brethren."  Their  commission  is  not  of  human 
origin,  nor  by  men's  authority,  but  derived  from  hea- 
ven by  virtue  of  the  institution  of  Christ,  sustained  by 
the  power  of  that  Holy  Ghost,  which  descended  visibly 
upon  the  first  prelates  of  the  church,  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost,J  wherefore  St.  Paul  addresses  their  associates,  in 
the  folio vring  words,§  "Take  heed  to  yourselves,  and  to 
the  Avhole  flock,  wherein  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  placed 
you  bishops  to  rule  the  church  of  God,  which  he  hath 
purchased  with  his  own  blood."  Thus  were  they  to  be 
"accounted  as  the  ministers  of  Christ;" ||  testifying  his 
doctrines,  not  speaking  of  themselves,  but  as  He  who  sent 
them  gave  them  commandment,  what  they  should  say, 
and  what  they  should  speak,  whilst  according  to  his  own 
promise,  he  would  continue  with  them  all  days  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  so  that  his  church  should  be  what  the 
apostles  describes  it,1[  "The  house  of  God,  the  church 
of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and  the  ground  of  truth." 
To  this  fold  "Was  he  to  bring  all  his  sheep,**  so  that  they 
should  by  its  testimony,  "Hear  his  voice  and  there  should 
be  one  fold  and  one  shepherd;"  as  was  foretold  by  many 
of  the  prophets,  but  especially  by  Ezechiehff  "And  iny 
servant  David  shall  be  king  over  them,  and  they  shall 
have  one  shepherd:  they  shall  walk  in  my  judgments  and 
shall  keep  my  commandments.     *    *    *     And  I   will 

*  Rom.  X.  18.    t  Luke,  xxii.  31,  32.    t  Acts,  ii.  4.  §  Acts,  xx.  28.     II  I.  Cor. 
iv.  1.      IT  I.  Tim.  iii.  15.     ♦*  John,  x.  16.    tt  Ezech.  xxiviii.  24,  &c. 


38  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

make  a  covenant  of  peace  with  them,  it  shall  be  an  ever- 
lastins;  covenant  with  them:  and  I  will  establish  them  and 
will  multiply  them,  and  will  set  my  sanctuary  in  the  midst 
of  them  for  ever,  and  my  tabernacle  shall  be  with  them: 
and  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people."* 
"And  I  will  set  up  one  shepherd  over  them,  and  he  shall 
feed  them,  even  my  servant  David,  he  shall  feed  them, 
and  he  shall  be  their  shepherd  and  I  the  Lord  will  be 
their  God,  and  my  servant  David  the  prince  in  the  midst 
of  them:  I  the  Lord  have  spoken  it." 

Thus  beloved  brethren,  do  we  receive  by  the  testi- 
mony of  this  "  cloud  of  witnesses,"  an  indication  of  the 
path  in  which  we  should  follow  after  the  ark  of  our 
safety,  "  it  is  a  holy  way,"t  "  it  shall  be  unto  you  a 
straight  way,  so  that  fools  shall  not  err  therein,"  for  by 
this  testimony  we  are  assured  of  what  God  has  revealed; 
his  word  is  to  us  the  foundation  and  the  measure  of  our 
faith,  as  it  is  the  code  which  also  regulates  our  morality ; 
we  believe  what  he  declares,  we  should  also  obey  his 
commands.  He  has  established  the  society  of  his  church 
upon  the  principles  of  a  well  ordered  community,  making 
it  the  witness  of  his  revelation,  so  that  secured  in  "  the 
unity  of  faith"!  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
*  *  *  we  be  no  more  children  tossed  to  and  fro  and  car- 
ried about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the  wicked- 
ness of  men,  by  cunning  craftiness  by  which  they  lie  in 
wait  to  deceive."  Entreating  then,  we  exhort  you  to 
continue  steadily  attached  to  this  firm  anchor  of  our 
hope,  and  submit  your  necks  to  the  sweet  yoke  of  Christ 
by  regulating  your  conduct  unrestrictedly  by  the  great 
maxims  of  the  gospel,  as  your  code  of  morality. 

But,  beloved  brethren,  you  are  aware  that  it  is  by  the 
institutions  of  the  Saviour  you  must  be  made  partakers  of 
the  fruits  of  his  redemption.  Your  obedience  to  his  law 
must  be  perfect.  You  cannot  expect  salvation  upon  any 
other  terms  than  those  which  he  has  established.  You 
must  be  enriched  to  growth  and  beauty  in  the  heavenly 
garden,  not  by  your  natural  powers,  but  by  being[engrafted 
upon  Christ  and  drawing  the  sustenance  of  heavenly  aid, 
in  his  grace,  from  his  institutions.  IN  either  by  your  own 
natural  power  are  you  able  without  the  influence  of  that 
grace,  to  believe,  or  to  hope,  or  to  have  useful  sorrow  for 

*  Ezech.  xxxiv.  23,  24.    t  Isaias  xxxv.  8.    X  Ephes.  iv.  13, 14. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  29 

sin,  or  to  love  or  to  serve  God  as  you  ought,  so  as  to  obtain 
heaven.  You  are,  as  the  apostle  St.  Paul  expresses  it, 
"Cut  out  of  the  wild  olive  tree,  which  is  natural  to  thee; 
and,  contrary  to  nature,  wert  grafted  into  the  good  olive 
tree,"*  so  that  drawing  from  Christ,  the  root  of  holiness, 
you  may  be  purified  from  sin  and  bloom  in  virtue  and 
bring  forth  fruit  to  eternal  life.  This  the  Saviour  himself 
explains  to  us,  when  he  informs  us  that  he  is  the  door 
by  which  the  sheep  enter  into  the  fold  ;t  and  more  at 
length  when  he  says,  "  I  am  the  true  vine ;  and  my 
father  is  the  husbandman.  Every  branch  in  me  that 
beareth  not  fruit  he  will  take  away:  and  every  one  that 
beareth  fruit  he  will  purge  it  that  it  may  bring  forth 
more  fruit.  *  *  *  Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you.  As  the 
branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself  unless  it  abide  in  the 
vine,  so  neither  can  you  unless  you  abide  in  me.  I  am 
the  vine,  you  the  branches,  he  that  abideth  in  me  and  I 
in  him,  the  same  beareth  much  fruit:  for  without  me  you 
can  do  nothing.  If  any  one  abide  not  in  me,  he  shall  be 
cast  forth  as  a  branch  and  shall  wither  and  they  shall 
gather  him  up,  and  cast  him  into  the  fire  and  heburneth.'"'J 
Now  it  is  by  the  means  of  his  sacraments  that  he  has 
provided  in  the  ordinary  communication  of  this  grace 
for  the  various  modes  of  our  regeneration  and  sanctifica- 
tion.  "  Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  thee,  unless  a  man  be 
born  again  of  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost  he  cannot  enter 
the  kingdom  of  God."§  "Now  when  the  apostles  who 
were  in  Jerusalem,  had  heard  that  Samaria  had  received 
the  word  of  God,  they  sent  unto  them  Peter  and  John: 
who,  when  they  were  come,  prayed  for  them,  that  they 
might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost.  For  he  was  not  as  yet 
come  upon  any  of  them :  but  they  were  only  baptised  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Then  they  laid  their  hands 
upon  them  and  they  received  the  Holy  Ghost."||  In  the 
gospel  of  St.  John  we  read,  "Then  Jesus  said  to  them: 
Amen,  amen,  I  say  unto  you,  except  you  eat  of  the  flesh 
of  the  son  of  man,  and  drink  his  blood  you  shall  not  have 
life  in  you."^  As  also  his  other  statement,  "When  he  had 
said  this  he  breathed  on  them  and  he  said  to  them :  Re- 
ceive ye  the  Holy  Ghost,  whose  sins  ye  shall  forgive  they 
are  forgiven  to  them :  and  whose  sins  you  shall  retain 
they  are  retained.'***    The  apostle  St,  James  also  exhi- 

•  Rom,  xi.  24.    tJohii  x.     t  Joha  xv.     §  John  iii.  v.     II  Acts  14,  15,  16, 17. 
•ir  John  vi.  54.    *♦  John  xx.  22, 23. 


50  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

bits  to  us  another  source  of  grace  when  he  writes,  "Is 
any  man  sick  amongst  you,  let  him  bring  in  the  priests  of 
tlie  church,  and  let  them  pray  over  him  anointing  him 
with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  And  tlie  prayer  of 
faith  shall  save  the  sick  man :  and  the  Lord  will  raise 
him  up,  and  if  he  be  in  sins  they  shall  be  forgiven  him."* 
In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  read,  "These  they  set 
before  the  apostles:  and  they  praying  imposed  hands 
upon  them."t  One  of  the  effects  of  this  rite  is  expressed 
in  another  place :  "  Then  they  exhorting  and  praying, 
and  imposing  their  hands  upon  them,  sent  them  away,  so 
they  being  sent  by  the  Holy  Ghost  went  to  Seleucia  ;"J 
but  more  clearly  exhibited  by  St.  Paul,  "  Neglect  not 
that  grace  that  is  in  thee,  which  was  given  thee  by  pro- 
phecy with  imposition  of  the  hands  of  the  priesthood  ;"§ 
and  again,  "  For  which  cause  I  admonish  thee  that  thou 
stir  up  the  grace  of  God  which  is  in  thee,  by  the  imposi- 
tion of  my  hands.'"||  Concerning  matrimony  w'e  read  in 
the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  "  What  therefore  God  hath 
joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder;"^  and  St.  Paul 
informs  us,  "For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father 
and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife,  and  they  shall 
be  two  in  one  flesh.  This  is  a  great  sacrament:  but  I 
speak  in  Christ  and  in  the  church."** 

How  many  sources  of  grace  are  thus  opened  to  us 
for  the  several  circumstances  in  which  we  may  be  placed? 
Again  therefore,  beloved;  entreating,  we  exhort  you  not 
to  despise  the  mercy  of  our  God;  not  to  reject  the  boun- 
ties of  Christ,  not  to  neglect  the  means  of  salvation  thus 
placed  within  your  reach.  Not  only  for  your  own  sakes, 
but  for  the  sake  of  your  children,  of  your  families,  of  the 
whole  church  of  Christ  are  you,  especially  the  heads  of 
those  families,  bound  to  have  recourse  to  such  of  those 
divine  institutions  as  are  befitting  your  circumstances. 

Your  example  is  powerful  for  good  or  for  evil.  You 
desire  to  train  up  your  children  in  the  way  in  which  they 
should  walk;  of  what  value  will  your  advice  be  in  con- 
tradiction to  your  example.'^  "He  that  shall  scandalize 
one  of  these  little  ones  that  believe  in  me,  it  were  better 
for  him  that  a  mill  stone  should  be  hanged  about  his 
neck,  and  that  he  should  be  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the 

•James  v.  11,  15.        tAcis  vi.  6.        tAcNxiiio.        §1.  Tim.  iv.  14. 
II II.  Tim.  i.  6.        V  Matt.  xii.  6.        ♦•  Ephes.  v.  31,  32. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  51 

sea.  Wo  to  the  world  because  of  scandals !  For  it 
must  needs  that  scandals  come:  but  nevertheless,  wo  to 
that  man  by  whom  the  scandal  cometh.  And  if  thy 
hand  or  thy  foot  scandalize  thee,  cut  it  off  and  cast  it 
from  thee.  It  is  better  for  thee  to  go  into  life  maimed  or 
lame  than  having  two  hands  or  two  feet,  to  be  cast  into 
everlasting  fire."*  And  in  another  place,  we  find  a  cor- 
responding declaration  of  the  Saviour,  "He  therefore, 
that  shall  break  one  of  these  least  commandments,  and 
shall  so  teach  men,  shall  be  called  the  least  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  ,  But  he  that  shall  do  and  teach,  shall 
be  called  great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. "f  We  would 
therefore  earnestly  and  solemnly  impress  upon  our  bre- 
thren, to  walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  in  which  they  are  call- 
ed and  by  their  example,  to  draw  others  to  the  practice  of 
those  great  duties  which  on  earth  give  a  peace  of 
which  the  children  of  the  world  have  scarcely  an  idea^ 
and  which  procures  for  us  in  heaven  a  joy  and  a  glory, 
the  like  of  which  no  earthly  eye  has  seen,  no  description 
of  which  has  penetrated  mortal  ear,  nor  to  conceive 
which  is  the  mind  of  man  capable  in  its  present  stitte, 
and  the  contemplation  of  which  bore  the  rapt  apostle  into 
such  exstatic  enjoyment. "| 

These  things  we  have  written  to  you,  beloved  breth- 
ren, respecting  your  first  and  greatest  obligations,  but 
there  are  others  upon  which  we  find  it  proper  to  express 
to  you  our  views.  They  regard  your  exertions  to  provide 
for  the  external  wants  of  religion  and  to  establish  those 
means  by  which  instruction  will  be  more  generally  dif- 
fused, the  ministry  more  widely  extended,  the  spiritual 
wants  of  great  numbers  better  attended  to,  and  even  the 
temporal  consolations  of  our  afflicted  fellovv  creatures, 
whether  members  of  our  church  or  estranged  therefrom, 
better  secured. 

We  should  first  call  your  attention  to  the  erection  and 
the  decoration  of  churches  and  their  proper  furniture. 
From  the  very  origin  of  Christianity  it  was  an  object  of 
great  interest  to  your  predecessors  in  the  faith:  it  is  es- 
sential for  the  decency  of  public  worship,  and  nothing 
tends  more  to  unite  and  to  preserve  in  the  bonds  of  af- 
fection, as  well  as  in  the  purity  of  faith,  the  Catholics  who 
reside  in  any  vicinage :  it  is  moreover  exceedingly  useful 

.    *  xVIatt.  xviii.  6,  7,  8.     t  Matt.  v.  19.      til.  Cor.  xii. 


32  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  faith  of  the  children 
and  affording  to  the  well  disposed  enquirer  an  opportu- 
nity of  learning  our  doctrines  and  correcting  misappre- 
hensions. 

But  in  the  creation  of  those  edifices  we  would  remark, 
that  it  has  frequently  occurred,  that  through  a  sad  mistake 
respecting  the  nature  of  our  church  government,  and  the 
influence   caused  by  the  example  of  religious   socities, 
whose  principles  are  in  direct  contradiction  to  those  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  days  of  the  apostles,  some 
of  the  managers  have  usurped  powers  to  which  they  had 
no  title,  which  are  incompatible  with  our  discipline  and 
in  some  instances  even  with  our  faith.    And  when  we 
were  constrained  in  the  discharge  of  our  duty  to  oppose 
theirpretensions,  they  complained  that  we  interfered  with 
their  rights:  and  they  sought  by  the  law  of  the  land,  in  con- 
tradiction to  the  spirit  of  those  constitutions  which  guar- 
antee our  religious  freedom,  to  subject  our  ecclesiastical 
administration  to  their  supervision,  and  to  withhold  the 
funds  created  for  the  support  of  religion  from  their  des- 
tined object,  unless  their  irregular  demandsw  ere  acceded 
to.     The  results  in  some  instances  have  been  extremely 
disgraceful  and  disastrous ;   but  we  thank  God,  that  at 
present  the  spirit  of  which  we  complain  has  nearly  dis- 
appeared. We  think  it  right  however  to  apprise  you,  that 
viewing  before  God,  and  singly  with  an  eye  to  the  wel- 
fare  of  religion,  this  case,  we  have  felt  it  to  be  our 
duty  at  all  hazards,  to  preserve  that  faith,  for  whose  de- 
fence you  and  we   are  bound  if  required  to  imitate  the 
devotion  of  the  glorious  martyrs  ;  and  also  to  prefer  offi- 
ciating, as   many   of  our   predecessors  have  done,    in 
the   open   air,  in  private   houses,  or  in  humble  sheds, 
for  those   who   are  faithful   to  their  principles  and  at- 
tached to  their  religion,  rather  than  to  enter  the  most 
gorgeous  temples  and   accept  of  the  most  abundant  sti- 
pends  as    the   price  of    that  freedom  of  ecclesiastical 
administration  which  it  is  our  obligation  to  preserve,  and 
the  diminution  of  which  would  be  most  injurious  to  re- 
ligion.    Nor  do  we  think  it  irrelevant  in  this  place  to 
observe,  that  it  has  almost  uniformly  occmred  that  the 
persons  who  thus  affected  zeal  for  religion   and  attach- 
ment to  liberty,  by  perpetrating  those  usurpations,  were 
notorious  for  their  total  neglect  of  religious  practices 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  33 

and  were  found  most  ready  to  abuse  any  power  they 
were  able  to  obtain.  We  therefore  admonish  you  of  the 
necessity  of  being  properly  informed  of  the  due  mode  of 
conforming  to  the  principles  of  your  own  church  before 
you  undertake  to  erect  buildings  for  her  worship.  There 
is  nothing  in  either  the  spirit  of  the  constitutions  or  in 
the  laws  of  our  republics  which  is  incompatible  with  the 
perfect  freedom  of  our  ecclesiastical  institutions  ;  no 
country  affords  better  means  for  their  security  and  pro- 
tection by  legal  provisions;  but  the  power  which  our 
states  properly  allow  to  each  religious  denomination  to 
manage  its  own  ecclesiastical  concerns  may  be  easily 
abused,  as  it  has  been  in  many  instances,  by  persons  who 
were  members  of  bodies  to  whose  spirit  they  were  op- 
posed. We  exhort  you  then,  in  acting  for  the  church, 
to  consult  with  the  recognized  authorities  of  that  church ; 
let  there  be  a  full  and  perfect  accordance  between  you 
and  them,  this  will  produce  co-operation,  sucpess,  charity, 
affection  and  peace,  and  will  moreover  secure  to  you  the 
blessings  of  religion.  We  would  also  remark  upon  the 
necessity  of  providing  for  every  church  that  furniture  for 
the  altar  and  the  sacristy  which  will  give  to  the  divine 
offices,  especially  to  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  that  ex- 
ternal dignity  which  becomes  the  service  of  the  Most  High. 
When  God  vouchsafed  to  prescribe  special  decorations 
for  his  tabernacle,  in  the  desert,  the  people  of  Israel  were 
invited  to  make  their  offerings,  and  their  zeal  and  devo-' 
tion  urged  their  generosity  ta  such  a  point  that  "The 
workmen  being  constrained  to  come,  said  to  Moses  :  the 
people  offereth  more  than  is  necessary.  Moses  there- 
fore commanded  proclamation  to  be  made  by  the  crier's 
voice :  Let  neither  man  nor  woman  offer  any  more  for 
the  sanctuary."*  We  need  not  remind  you  of  the  spe- 
cial benedictions  which  the  Lord  continues  to  bestow 
upon  those  who,  animated  with  the  due  sentiments  of 
religion,  contribute  with  cheerful  hearts  to  promote  the 
great  work  of  his  service  upon  this  earth. 

"  Let  the  priests  that  rule  well,  be  esteemed  worthy  of 
double  honour,  especially  they  who  labour  in  word  and 
doctrine,"!  was  the  admonition  of  St  Paul  to  his  disci- 
ple Timothy  who  at  that  period,  according  to  the  primi- 
tive usages,  had  the  entire  apportionment  and  distribu- 

*Exod.  xxxvi.  4,  5,  6.         1 1.  Tim.  v.  17. 

5 


34  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

tion  of  the  means  contributed  for  the  purposes  of  religion: 
and  in  his  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  the  apostle 
asks,  "  Who  serveth  as  a  soldier  at  any  time,  at  his  own 
charges  ?  who  planteth  a  vineyard  and  eateth  not  of  the 
fruit  thereof?  whofeedeth  a  flock,  and  eateth  not  of  the 
milk  of  the  flock  ?  speak  I  these  things  according  to 
man  ?  or  doth  not  the  law  also  say  these  things  ?  For  it 
is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle 
the  mouth  of  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn.  Doth 
God  take  care  of  oxen  ?  or  doth  he  say  this  indeed  for 
our  sakes,  for  these  things  are  written  for  our  sakes,  that 
he  that  plougheth  should  plough  in  hope :  and  he  that 
thresheth  in  hope  to  receive  fruit.  If  we  have  sown  to 
you  spiritual  things,  is  it  a  great  matter  if  we  reap  your 
carnal  things  ^*    *  *  *    tcj^  j^Q^y  yg   ^q^  ^[J£^|■  tj^gy  y^rjj^ 

work  in  the  holy  place  eat  the  things  that  are  of  the  holy 
place ;  and  they  that  serve  the  altar  partake  with  the 
altar  ?  So  also  the  Lord  ordained  that  they  who  preach 
the  gospel  should  live  by  the  gospel."f 

We  have  placed  this  passage  under  your  view,  not  so 
much  for  the  purpose  of  insinuating  against  you  any  want 
of  disposition  to  perform  the  duty  whiph  it  inculcates,  as 
of  bringing  to  your  consideration  a  subject  which  has 
been  heretofore  overlooked.  We  are  ready  to  testify, 
that  in  many  instances  you  exert  yourselves  in  a  manner 
very  creditable  to  yourselves  and  beneficial  to  religion, 
in  contributing  to  the  support  of  your  pastors;  and  we 
also  are  gratified  at  knowing  that,  as  a  body,  our  clergy 
are  well  deserving  of  what  they  thus  receive.  Indeed, 
we  know  of  no  other  portion  of  the  church  in  any  region 
of  the  w  orld,  where  in  one  sense,  the  words  of  the  Apostle 
"who  planteth  a  vineyard  and  eateth  not  of  the  fruit 
thereof,"'  would  be  no  properly  applicable  as  in  the  United 
States.  For  besides  that  almost  all  our  churches  have 
been  built  chiefly  by  the  laborious  exertions  of  the  clergy- 
man; their  whole  income  is  produced  by  his  services; 
and  if  he  ceases  to  ofliciate,  the  revenue  would  be  small 
indeed  !  Nothing  can  then  be  more  just  than  that  the 
provision  for  the  clergy  should  be  the  principal  object  of 
its  application:  as  St.  Paul  declares  to  Timothy,  "the 
husbandman  that  laboureth  must  first  partake  of  the 
fruits."! [ 

♦1.  Cor.  ix.  7,  8,  y,  10,  11.        1 1.  Cor.  ix.  13,  11.        t  U.  Tim.  ii.  tJ. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  35 

In  those  countries  where  parochial  or  other  benefices 
exist,  the  incumbent,  when  worn  out  by  labour  or  age, 
or  incapaciateci  by  sickness  or  accident,  is  not  cast  aside; 
he  still  enjoys  his  right  to  the  place,  and  continues  iri 
possession  of  the  income;  and  it  is  fit  that  it  should  be 
so:  for  to  use  the  expressions  of  the  Apostle,  who,  when 
he  admonishes  Timothy  to  "labour  as  a  good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ,"*  tells  him  also,  that  "no  man  being  a  sol- 
dier to  God  entangleth  him  with  secular  businesses,  that 
he  may  please  him  to  whom  he  hath  engaged  himself;" 
the  clergy  are  prohibited  by  the  canons  of  the  church 
from  being  engaged  in  traffic,  that  they  may  be  wholly 
occupied  in  their  ministerial  duties.  The  emolument 
which  they  receive  is  comparatively  moderate,  some- 
times wretchedly  small;  they  are  liable  to  applications 
from  the  distressed,  and  to  demands  for  the  purposes 
of  religion,  sufficient  to  deprive  them  of  the  power, 
even  if  they  had  the  will,  of  laying  up  for  themselves 
a  provision  for  age  or  infirmity,  and  the  canonical  reg- 
ulations, in  such  contingencies,  provide  for  their 
support  out  of  the  funds  of  the  benefice,  and  for  the 
discharge  of  the  duty  by  giving  an  assistant,  to  main- 
tain whom  both  the  incumbent  and  they  who  are  served 
contribute.  Our  circumstances  render  the  creation 
of  such  benefices  at  the  present  moment  extremely 
inexpedient,  even  if  the  canonical  grounds  for  their 
creation  existed:  and  instances  have  occurred  where 
meritorious  priests,  after  a  faithful  discharge  of  duty, 
have  been  neglected  and  left  in  great  destitution;  and 
few  missions  are  known,  in  which  the  income  of  a 
clergyman  is  smaller  than  on  these  of  the  United 
States.  We  would  appeal  to  your  own  feelings  of 
justice  to  say  whether  this  was  as  it  ought  to  be. 
Cases  nmy  however  arise,  in  which  the  clergyman 
would  be  in  need  of  aid  which  he  deserves,  without 
having  a  sufficient  claim  upon  any  special  church  to 
entitle  him  to  require  that  it  should  support  him.  To 
provide  for  cases  of  this  description,  and  others  of  a 
similar  character,  we  have  recommended,  that  in  each 
Diocess,  the  clergy  themselves  should  create  a  fund 
applicable  to  such  purposes,  under  the  superintend- 
ance  of  the  Bishop;  and  we  should  hope  you  will  also 
feel  that  this  object  merits  your  aid. 

.  *  11.  Tim.  ii.  3,  4. 


36  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

For  ourselves,  we  feel  that  we  have  always  received, 
as  we  have  endeavoured  to  merit,  your  support:  but 
we  would  suggest  that  as  the"  duties  of  the  bishop  re- 
gard the  welfare  of  the  whole  Diocess,  arid  as  he  is 
principally  occupied  in  its  general  concerns,  it  would 
be  fitting  that  all  the  churches  and  congrefTations  should 
aid  in  creating  a  fund,  not  merely  sufficient  for  his 
individual  support;  but  also  adequate  to  afford  him  the 
services  of  one  or  more  clergymen,  according  to  the 
extent  and  duties  and  means  of  the  Diocess,  to  aid  him 
in  efficiently  labouring  to  the  advantage  of  the  entire 
Diocess,  for  the  promotion  of  religion  and  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  his  whole  flock. 

To  provide  for  a  succession  of  the  clergy,  is  also  a 
general  concern  of  the  churches  and   congregations, 
which,  however  well  they  may  be  served   at  the  mo- 
ment, cannot  insure  themselves  against  the  casualties 
which  produce  a  vacancy:  and  if  no  measures  be  taken 
to  educate  and   to  form,  by  proper  discipline,  a  body 
of  clergy  to   supply  those  vacancies  as  they  occur, 
what  must  be  the  consequence?     Many  of  our  most 
flourishing  churches  have  had  to  underg-o  lono^  desti- 
tution,  to  struggle  through  great  difficulties,  to  witness 
many  scandals  and  to  suffer  heavy  losses,  because  of 
the  want  of  a  clergy  sufficiently  numerous  and   pro- 
perly qualified  for  our  missions.     Many  catholics  who 
came  hither  from  other  nations,  as  well  as  several  of 
our  own  citizens  who  have  removed  to  the  interior, 
were  condemned  to  wander  in  spiritual  desolation, 
until  becoming  estranged  from  their  religion  they  were 
indiff'erent  to  its  concerns  or  its  practices;  and  they 
and  thousands  of  their  children  have  been  themselves 
lost  to  the  church,     It  is  an  obligation  of  pressing  im- 
portance, therefore,  for  every  one  to  contribute  accord- 
ing to  his  means,  to  supply  this  deficiency.     The  ec- 
clesiastical state,  especially  in  our  church,  is  not  a 
profession,  to  prepare  his  child  for  which  a  parent  will 
make  an  extraordinary  sacrifice,  in  the  expectation 
that  the  future  income  will  justify  the  present  outlay; 
and  the  education  necessary  for  a  priest  is  one  not  to 
be  acquired  without  considerable  time,  and  no  small 
expense.     The  body  which  is  to  be  served  has  been 
accustomed  to  undertake  that  expense  in  many  parts 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  37 

of  Europe,  by  the  creation  of  Seminaries  sustained  by 
the  public  funds  of  the  nation;  and  when  these  could 
not  be  obtained,  the  objefct  was  effected  by  the  contri- 
butions of  the  faithful  or  the  donations  or  legacies  of 
the  wealthy  and  the  pious.  In  these  United  States, 
our  fellow-citizens  of  various  religious  denominations, 
have  numerous,  large  and  well  endowed  theological 
schools,  to  which  their  yearly  contributions  are  very 
considerable.  Hitherto  you  have  done  Itttle  or  nothing 
to  aid  our  Seminaries.  Many  of  us  have  received  for 
this  purpose,  moderate  aid  from  the  piety  of  our  fellow 
catholics  in  France,  in  Austria,  and  in  one  or  two  in- 
stances froni  Ireland.  The  Holy  See  has  also  gener- 
ously admitted  some  of  oiir  youths  into  the  Urban 
College  of  the  Propaganda  at  Rome,  where  they  gra- 
tuitously receive  their  education  and  have  their  wants 
supplied.  We  strenuously  exhort  you  to  do  your 
duty,  by  contributing  to  raise  up  a  national  clergy; 
exert  yourselves  to  provide  that  your  own  sons  should 
minister  at  your  altars.  In  your  several  Diocesses 
you  can  co-operate,  each  of  you  with  his  proper  pre- 
late, for  this  most  important  object. 

We  have  on  former  occasions  addressed  to  you  our 
advice  and  exhortation  respecting  the  use  and  the 
abuse  of  the  public  press,  as  respects  our  religion.    It 
is  a  powerful  engine  for  good  or  for  evil:  and  in  those 
states  it  has  been,  and  still  is,  extensively  used  against 
us,  both  openly  and  covertly.     We  do  not  dwell  upon 
the  gross  untruths,  the  false  charges,  the  notorious 
perversions,  the  ribbald  abuse  which  are  continually 
spread  before  the  eyes  of  millions  of  our  fellow-citi- 
zens against  you  and  us,  and  our  religion,  by  what  is 
called  the  periodical  religious  press:  we  need  not  ex- 
hibit to  you  the  pages  of  several  public  journals  to 
show  the  adverse  spirit  of  a  large  portion  of  political 
editors  to  truth  and  justice,  where  we  are  concerned. 
Not  onl)^  are  the  public  libraries  and  the  literary  in-« 
stitutions  formed  upon  the  same  principle,  and  tracts 
and  pamphlets  which  exhale  the   poison  of  virulent 
misrepresentation  and  obloquy,  widely  disseminated, 
but  the  very  school-books  for  even  the  youngest  learn- 
ers are  infected;  so  that  from  the   most  tender  child- 
hood to  the  decrepitude  of  age,  the  great  portion  of 


38  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

the  reading  public  may  be,  taught  to  detest  and  to  des- 
pise what  they  are  led  to  believe  is  our  religion. 

Within  a  few  years  however,  some  publishers  have 
put  forth  a  number  of  books  containing  a  correct  ex- 
position of  our  doctrines  and  the  defence  of  our  tenets; 
though  we  regret  tiiat  in  some  instances,  either  acting 
from  their  own  views  or  having  consulted  with  per- 
sons not  sufficiently  qualified  to  advise  them,  they 
have  occasionally  exhibited  a  want  of  judgment  in 
their  selection:  We  find  that  amongst  you  the  spirit 
of  encouraging  their  effi)rts  has  been  daily  becoming 
more  strong,  and  we  trust,  that  they  will  themselves 
feel  it  to  be  their  duty,  as  it  will  be  their  interest  hence- 
forward to  consult  in  the  proper  ^manner,  with  the 
Ordinary  ecclesiastical  superior,  before  they  undertake 
such  publications. 

We  feel  disposed  also  to  exhort  you  to  sustain  with 
better  efforts  those  journals,  which  though  not  official- 
ly sanctioned  by  us,  still  are  most  useful  to  explain 
our  tenets,  to  defend  our  rights  and  to  vindicate  our 
conduct.  We  regret  to  learn  that  in  several  instances 
those  conducted  under  the  eye  of  the  ordinary  ecclesi- 
astical authority  are  continued  only  at  a  pecuniary 
sacrifice  to  their  proprietors,  and  by  the  zealous  and 
gratuitous  exertions  of  their  editors.  We  would  im- 
press upon  you  the  necessity  of  exertion  on  your  parts, 
to  have  them  better  sustained  and  their  circulation  ex- 
tended as  widely  as  possible. 

We  have  formed  ourselves  into  a  Society  for  the 
production  and  dissemination  of  books  useful  to  the 
cause  of  truth  and  of  virtue,  leaving  to  each  prelate 
its  adaptation  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  his  own 
Diocess,  but  committing  for  the  present  the  adminis- 
tration of  its  general  affairs  chiefly  to  the  Archbishop, 
who  as  soon  as  his  leisure  will  permit,  will  proceed  to 
execute  what  he  has  undertaken.  Our  object  is,  as 
.  far  as  practicable,  to  apply  some  remedy  to  those  evils 
which  we  lament,  and  we  trust  that  your  love  of  truth 
and  your  zeal  for  virtue  will  lead  you  to  co-operate 
with  us,  to  the  best  of  your  power,  for  this  most  neces- 
sary purpose. 

We  would  also  beloved  brethren,  renew  the  entreaty 
which  we  have  made  to  you  on  other  occasions,  to 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  39 

unite  your  efforts  to  ours  for  upholding  those  institu- 
tions which  we  have  created  for  the  education  of  your 
children.  It  is  our  most  earnest  wish  to  make  them 
as  perfect  as  possible,  in  their  fitness  for  the  commu-  ' 
nication  and  improvement  of  science,  as  well  as  for  the 
cultivation  of  pure  solid  and  enlightened  piety.  And 
if  we  occasionally  experience  some  difficulty  and  do 
not  advance  as  rapidly  as  the  wishes  of  our  friends,  or 
their  too  sanguine  hopes  would  look  for,  some  allow- 
ance must  be  made  for  the  difficulties  by  which  we 
are  surrounded  and  the  opposition  which  we  experi- 
ence. Yet,  these  notwithstanding,  we  are  persuaded, 
that  amongst  those  under  our  superintendance,  are  to 
be  found,  some  of  the  most  scientific  and  literary  houses 
of  education  which  our  nation  possesses;  some  estab- 
lishments for  the  instruction  of  youth,  male  and 
female,  in  which  there  are  successfully  taught  those 
speculative  and  practical  lessons  which  inform  the 
understanding,  regulate  the  imagination,  cultivate 
the  taste,  ameliorate  the  heart,  improve  the  disposition, 
impress  the  importance  and  obligation  of  fulfiling  every 
social,  civic,  domestic  and  religious  duty,  and  teach 
the  best  mode  of  their  performance.  And  we  trust, 
that  by  a  continuation  of  that  patronage  which  they 
have  received,  we  shall  be  enabled  to  behold  them 
fake  deep  root  in  our  soil,  flourish  in  beauty  and 
vigour,  and  furnish  an  abundant  supply  of  useful 
citizens  and  christians,  fitted  for  conferring  blessings 
upon  that  country  which  protects  them  and  that  reli- 
gion which  they  profess. 

We  would  especially  commend  to  your  fostering 
care  those  pious  and  meritorious  sisterhoods,  which  in 
addition  to  the  culture  of  the  youthful  mind,  gather 
up  the  little  orphan  whom  Heaven  has  deprived  of  its 
mother's  care,  who  attend  the  couch  of  sickness  to 
moisten  the  burning  lip,  to  assuage  the  anguish  of 
pain,  to  whisper  consolation  to  the  raving  spirit  and 
to  point  to  the  true  source  of  the  sinner's  hope,  when 
in  the  dimn0ss  of  his  eye  he  begins  to  be  sensible  of 
the  darkness  of  the  grave.  These  are  the  women, 
who  generously  devoting  themselves  to  the  whole 
cause  of  godlike  charity,  are  found  in  good  and  in 
evil  report;  in  the  school,  in  the  hospital,  in  the  prison, 


40  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

in  the  hovel  of  poverty,  in  the  maniac's  call,  in  the 
midst  of  pestilence,  surrounded  by  the  bodies  of  the 
dying  and  the  corpses  of  the  dead;  discharging  the 

.  duties  of  their  holy  zeal,  alike  to  the  professor  of  their 
faith  and  to  its  opponent,  and  tending  with  the  same 
assiduity  the  wretched  calumniator  of  their  creed, 
their  virtue  and  their  sex,  as  they  would  their  most 
generous  defender. 

To  you,  our  venerable  co-operators  in  the  ministry, 
priests  of  Christ  Jesus,  we  say  in  particular.  "Continue 
you  in  those  things   which  you  have  learned,   and 

■  which  have  been  committed  to  you:  know^ing  of  whom 
you  have  learned.     And  because  from  your  infancy, 
you  have  known  the  holy  scriptures,  which  can  in- 
struct you  to  salvation,  by  the  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.     All  scripture  inspired  by  God,  is  profitable  to 
teach,  to  reprove,  to  correct,  to  instruct  unto  justice, 
that  the 'man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  furnished  unto 
every  good  work."*     "Flee  youthful  desires,  and  pur- 
sue justice,  faith,  charity  and  peace,  with  them  that 
call  upon  the  Lord  out  of  a  pure  heart.     And  avoid 
foolish  and  unlearned  questions,  knowing  that  they 
beget  strifes.     But  the  servant  of  ..the  Lord  must  n6t 
wrangle,  but  be  mild  towards  aW  men,  apt  to  teach, 
patient,  with  modesty,  admonishing  them  that  resist 
the  truth:  if  peradventure  God  may  give  them  re- 
pentance to  know  the  truth,  and  they  may  recover 
themselves  from  the  snares  of  the  devil,  by  whom  they 
are  held  captive  at  his  will."t     "Hold  the  form  of 
sound  words  w^hich  you  have  heard  of  us  in  faith, 
and  in  the  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.     Keep  the 
good  thing  committed  to  your  trust  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
that  dwelleth  in  us."|     "But  according  to  him  that 
hath  called  you,  who  is  holy,  be  you  also  in  all  man 
ner  of  conversation  holy:  because  it  is  written,  you 
shall  he  }iolij,for  I  am  hohjy^     "Be  prudent  therefore, 
and  watch  in  prayers.     But  before  all  tlAngs  have  a 
constant,  mutual  charity  among  yourselves;  for  cha- 
rity covereth  a  multitude  of  sins.     Using  hospitality 
one  towards  another  without  murmuring.     As  every 
man  hath  received  grace,  ministering  the  same  to  one 

*  II.  Tim.  iii.  14,  15,  16,  17.     t  II.  Tim.  Ji.  22, 23,  24, 25, 26.     J II.  Tim.  i. 
13,  14.    §  I.  Peter  i.  15,  16. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  41 

another:  as  good  stewards  of  the  manifold  grace  of 
God."*  "And  you,  employing  all  care,  minister  in 
your  faith,  virtue:  and  in  virtue,  knowledge:  and  in 
knowledge  abstinence:  and  in  abstinence,  patience: 
and  in  patience,  godliness:  and  in  godliness,  love  of 
brotherhood:  and  in  love  of  brotherhood,  charity.  For 
if  these  things  be  with  you  and  abound,  they  will 
make  you  to  be  neither  empty  nor  unfruitful  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  For  he  that 
hath  not  these  things  with  him,  is  blind  and  groping, 
having  forgotten  that  he  was  purged  from  his  old  sins. 
Wherefore,  brethren  labour  the  more,  that  by  good 
works,  you  may  make  sure  your  calling  and  election. 
For  doing  these  things  you  will  not  sin  at  any  time."t 
"Feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you,  taking 
care  of  it,  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly  according  to 
God:  not  for  filthy  lucre's  sake,  but  voluntarily:  *** 
being  made  a  pattern  of  the  flock  from  the  heart.  And 
when  the  prince  of  pastors  shall  appear,  you  shall  re- 
ceive a  never-fading  crown  of  glory."J  "Be  you  an 
example  of  the  faithful  in  word,  in  conversation,  in 
charity,  in  faith,  in  chastity.  *  *  *  Attend  unto 
reading,  to  exhortation  and  to  doctrine.  Neglect  not 
the  grace  that  is  in  you,  which  was  given  to  you  by 
prophecy,  with  the  imposition  of  the  hands  of  the 
priesthood.  Meditate  upon  these  things,  be  wholly  in 
these  things;  that  your  profiting  may  be  manifested  to 
all.  Take  heed  to  yourselves  and  to  doctrine:  be 
earnest  in  them.  For  in  doing  this  you  ^hall  both 
save  yourselves  and  them  that  hear  you."§  "We 
charge  you  before  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  shall  judge  the  living  and  the  dead,  by  his  coming 
and  his  kingdom:  Preach  the  word:  be  instant  in 
season,  out  of  season:  reprove,  entreat,  rebuke  in  all 
patience  and  doctrine.  *  *  *  Be  vigilant,  labour  in 
all  things,  do  the  work  of  evangelists,  fulfil  the  ministry, 
be  sober." II  ''Charge  the  rich  of  this  world  not  to  be 
high-minded,  nor  to  trust  in  the  uncertainty  of  riches, 
but  in  the  living  God  (who  giveth  us  abundantly  all 
things  to  enjoy.)  To  do  good,  to  be  rich  in  good 
works,  to  give  easily,  to  communicate  to  others,  to  lay 

♦I .  Pet.  iv.  7, 8,  9,  10.  t  II.  Pet.  i.  5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.    1 1.  Pet.  v.  2, 3, 4.   §  I.  Tim 
iv.  12, 13, 14, 15, 16.     II  II.  Tim.  iv.  1,2,  5. 

6 


42  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

up  in  store  for  themselves  a  good  foundation  against 
the  time  to  come,  that  they  may  lay  hold  on  the  true 
life."*  "Whosoever  are  servants  under  the  yoke,  let 
them  count  their  masters  worthy  of  all  honour;  lest 
the  name  of  the  Lord  and  his  doctrine  be  blasphemed. 
But  they  that  have  believing  masters,  let  them  not 
despise  them,  because  they  are  brethren,  but  serve 
them  the  rather,  because  they  are  faithful  and  be- 
loved, who  are  partakers  of  the  benefit.  These  things 
teach  and  exhort"!  "And  now  we  commend  you  to 
God  and  to  to  the  word  of  his  grace,  who  is  able  to 
build  up  and  to  give  an  inheritance  among  all  the 
sanctified.  "J 

Beloved  brethren  of  the  clergy  and  laity.  "God  is 
not  unjust  that  he  should  forget  your  work  and  the 
love  which  you  have  shewn  in  his  name,  j'^ou  who 
have  ministered  and  do  minister  to  the  saints;  and 
we  desire  that  every  one  of  you  shew  forth  the  same 
carefulness  to  the  accomplishing  of  hope  unto  the 
end:  that  you  become  not  slothful,  but  followers  of 
them,  who  through  faith  and  patience  shall  inherit  the 
promises."^  "Wherefore  we  pray  always  for  you:  that 
our  God  would  make  you  worthy  of  his  vocation,  and 
fulfil  all  good  pleasure  of  his  goodness,  and  the  work  of 
faith  and  power,  that  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
may  be  glorified  in  you  and  you  in  him,  according  to  the 
grace  of  our  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."|| — 
"But  we  ought  to  give  thanks  to  God  always  for  you, 
brethren,  beloved  of  God,  for  that  God  hath  chosen 
you  first  fruits  unto  salvation,  in  sanctification  of  the 
spirit  and  faith  of  the  truth:  whereunto  he  hath  called 
you  by  our  gospel  unto  the  purchasing  of  the  glory  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Therefore,  brethren,  stand 
fast;  and  hold  to  the  traditions  which  you  have  learned, 
whether  by  word  or  by  our  epistle.  Now  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  himself,  and  God  and  our  Father  who  hath 
loved  us,  and  hath  given  us  everlasting  consolation  and 
good  hope  in  grace,  exhort  your  hearts  and  confirm  you 
in  every  good  work  and  word."!! 

"For  the  rest,  brethren,  pray  for  us,  that  the  word  of 
God  may  run  and  may  be  glorified,  even  as  among  you: 

•  I.  Tim.  vi.  17,  18,  19.        t  I.  Tim.  vi.  1,  2.        tActs,  xx.  32.      §  Heb 
vi.  10,  11,  12.        II  II.  Thessal.  i.  11,  12.       II  II.  Thessal.  ii.  12, 13, 14,  15,  16. 


PASTORAL  LETTER.  4S 

and  that  we  may  be  delivered  from  importunate  and 
evil  men:  for  all  men  have  not  faith.  But  God  is  faith- 
ful, who  will  strengthen  and  keep  you  from  evil.  And 
we  have  confidence  concerning  you  in  the  Lord  that  the 
things  which  we  command,  you  both  do  and  will  do. 
And  the  Lord  direct  your  hearts  in  the  charity  of  God, 
and  the  patience  of  Christ."* 

"The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  be  with  you 
all,  Amen. 

Given  in  Council,  at  Baltimore,  this  22d  day  of  April, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1837. 

+SAMUEL,  Archbishop  of  Baltimore. 

fJOHN,  Bishop  of  Charleston. 

t JOSEPH,  Bishop  of  St.  Louis. 

\BY.n¥.mCT,ZO^.  Bishop  of  Boston. 

tFRANCIS,  PATRICK,  Bishop  of  Arath,  Coad- 
jutor of  Philadelphia. 

tJOHN,  BAPTIST,  Bishop  of  CincinnaU. 

fGUY  IGNATIUS,  Bishop  of  Bolina,  Coadjutor 
of  Bardstorvn. 

fSIMON,  GABRIEL, Bishop  of  Vincennes. 

fWILLIAM,  Bishop  of  Orio.  Coad.  of  Charleston. 

t ANTHON  Y,  Bishop  of  New  Orleans. 

*  n.  Thessal.  iii.  1.3,  3,  4,  5, 18. 


,1^. 


9 


SKETCH 


or  A 


SEKMON, 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 


NORTH  CAROLINA  BIBLE  SOCIETY, 


AT  ITS  ANNIVERSARY, 


IN  THE  CITY  OF  RALEIGH, 


ON  SUNDAY,  THE  12th  OP  DECEMBER,  1841, 


BY  CHARLES  M.  F.  DEEMS, 

AGENT   OF  THE  AMERICAN   BIBLE   SOCIETT. 


RALEIGH: 

PRINTED   BY     WESTON  R.    GA.LE3,     AT   THE  RALEIGH   REGISTER     OFFICE. 

18  4  1. 


At  a  meeting  of  tbe  North  Carolina  Bible  Society,  a  motion  was 
TOade  by  Mr.  John  Psimrose,  seconded  and  amended  by  the  Hon.  Judge 
Cameron,  tbat  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  returned  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Deemss, 
for  Uie  Sermon  delivered  belore  tliem  on  the  previous  Sunday,  and  that  he  be 
•respectfully  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  for  publication,  under  the  direction  of 
the  Board  of  Managers.  To  attend  to  this  business,  the  Boa*d  appointed  the 
Subscribers. 

NELSON  B.  HUGHES,   ^ 

RUFFIN  TUCKER,         C  Committee. 

WESTON  R.  GALES,    >  !         . 


NOTE  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 

The  Anniversary  Discourse  was  delivered  from  very  slight  notes,  and  the 
whole  of  the  following  Sermon  was  written  in  the  interval  of  business,  several 
days  after.  Of  course  the  language  coufd  not  be  retained,  and  the  autlior  is 
conscious  that  several  illustrations  used  on  'the  occasion  have  passed  from  bis 
mind.  Some  points,  too,  are  more  nearly  developed  in  the  written  than  they 
were  in  the  spoken  Discourse.  These  remarks  are  thought  to  be  due  to  ibeso- 
who  heard  the  Sermon,  and  who  may  kindly  peruse  this  Pamphlet. 


sermon: 


*•  The  word  of  God  is  quick  and  powerful." 

Hebrews,  iv,  12; 

This  blessed  Book,  which  we  have  adopted  as  the  rule  of' 
our  faith  and  practice,  is  known  among  us  by  different  names. 
We  call  it  the  Bible,  as  being  pre-eminently  the  most  valu- 
able of  all  books ;  and  we  call  it  the  Saa^ed  Scriptures, 
because  it  contains  what  vye  helieve  ta-  be  the  writings  of 
Holy  men  of  old,  who  were  inspired  from  on  high.  In  the- 
text  before  us  it  is  called  the  JVord  of  God,  as  coming 
immediaLely  from  the  mouth  of  ihe  great  Creator.  And  that 
this  volume  is  not  the  production  of  unaided  human  intellect, 
but  has  come  from  the  great  Spirit,  is  a  proposition  which 
we  not  only  most  heartily  adopt,  but  it  is  the  fundamental 
article  of  Christian  failh,  upon  which  we  build  all  our  hopes 
of  happiness  in  the  world  beyond  the  tomb. 

As  believers  in  the  genuineness  and  Divine  authority  of 
the  Bible,  we  cannot  see  that  it  requires  any  unnatural  effort 
of  the  mind,  lo  perceive  and  believe  that  it  is  possible  and 
probable  that  He  who  has  given  us  bodies  and  spirits,  and 
established  the  mystic  union  between  mind  and  matterj 
should  make  a  revelation  of  his  nature  and  will  to  the 
creatures  whom  He  has  otherwise  so  abundantly  favored* 
Few  are  so  far  gone  into  the  mists  of  error  as  to  deny  that 
there  is  some  great  First  Cause ;  for  Scepticism  herself,  as 
she  stands  before  the  magnificent  temple  of  Nature,  musi 
silently  commune  with  thoughts  of  the  glorious  Architect;, 
and  when  she  penetrates  the  Holiest  of  Holies  oimteWeoX, 
she  is  awed  into  religious  silence,  under  an  almost  oppressive 
conception  of  the  unfathdmed  resources  of  the  Omnipotent 
Original  Mind.  How,  then,  shall  we  dare  to  question 
whether  it  is  possible  for  that  great  First  Cause  to  make  any 
impressions  upon. the  spirit  whiebspfUng  from  his  own? 


If  he  has  created  matter  and  modified  li  into  a  myriad  of 
combinations,  and  is  able  still  to  operale  uoon  *■,  jnd  even 
to  annihilate  ii ;  if  that  inlangible  ageni,  !he  ji.'*:7i  'ms 
obtained  all  its  endowments  from  the  Crea.or,  who  1)»  suy 
that  it  may  not  receive  any  impress-oos  from  ii'    s)*  '  ? 

Is  it  not  probable,  too,  that  God — or  Ctd'.  the  riv.hor  of 
Life  by  whatever  name  you  p'easf' — would  make  >^  :cvp\'-ioa 
to  his  creatures  ?  Hush  the  voice  of  the  Bible  and  ilie  Priest, 
and  listen  to  the  speakings  of  Nature.  She  lells  us  ihat  on 
all  her  broad  bosom  she  bears  not  an  irrational  crea'.tire  wh  ch 
is  born  to  pains,  and  which  has  a  longing  unsaiisj'ed.  She 
tells  us  that  He  who  gave  them  desires  has  prepared  v  ,  .1- 
dantly  for  their  gratification.  Let  us  then  look  in  upon 
ourselves.  Each  one  of  us  finds  himself  to  be  a  snguh  r  and 
incomprehensible  union  of  substances  we  call  master  .  nd 
mind.  The  peculiar  conformation  of  the  former,  we  c«ll 
body^zxidi  find  in  the  ample  store-house  or  Natui  e  u  provision 
for  all  the  wants  of  this  body  by  Him  who  created  it.  The 
mind,  a  more  subtile  production  of  this  great  First  Cause, 
has  as  many  desires  as  the  body  upon  which  it  operates,  and 
these  desires  are  far  more  refined  than  the  appeiile^  of  the 
body  which  it  inhabits.  Now,  if  the  Author  of  all  has  made 
a  full  preparation  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  body,  can  it  be 
thought  that  He  would  purposely  or  inadverienily  overlook 
the  wants  of  the  mind?  Such  an  assertion  would  be  a  libel 
upon  Him  who  has  made  in  mind,  what  He  has  not  in  matter, 
a  resemblance  of  Himself.  Among  other  things  we  find  that 
the  spirit  within  us  has  an  anxious  craving, — we  cannot  say 
that  it  is  unlawful, — to  know  its  origin  and  its  destiny. 
When  it  has  tested  the  extent  of  its  powers,  it  feels  that  it 
could  never  have  come  into  existence  of  its  own  accord,  and 
that  the  source  of  its  existence  must  be  Ihan  iisolf  inconceiv- 
ably far  more  powerful  and  j^lorious.  When  it  looks  into 
the  future,  it  can  sec  nothing  in  the  dissolution  which  it  finds 
must  take  place  between  it  and  the  body,  to  suspend  or  de- 
stroy its  own  existence.  Beyond  that  hour  of  dissolution, 
what  shall  be  its  abode  and  its  company,  its  powers  and  its 
employments,  arc  questions  which  become  unspeakably  im- 


portant.  In  vain  does  it  seek  a  reply  from  Nature's  thousand 
,voices.  and  it  turns  its  anxious  eye  to  its  Author  to  know 
t\iese  things  wh-ch  so  relale  to  itself.  But,  who  and  what  is 
ihi>c  Author?  And  the  profound  silliness  of  the  Universe, 
vviien  ihe  soul  proposes  the  solemn  question,  settles  upon  it 
with  a  most  oppressive  heaviness.  Can  it  be  possible  that 
H<^  has.  >nt  ead  the  snieodid  firmament  above  us,  and  painted 
i'- rich  scenery  of  earth  around  us,  lo  give  us  indubitable 
nroo  'that  He  exists,  and  then  retire  behind  the  veil  which 
we  cannot  p'erce,  (o  enjoy  the  malignant  pleasure  of  behold- 
ing ITis  oeatures  grop'iig  ai'ler  Him  until  they  fall  into  the 
pit  of  the  grave  ?  if  Jle  thought  it  not  trifling  to  create  us, 
Oh!  wouM  it  be  «'ondescendiiigtoo  mach  to  reveal  Himself, 
in  oart  at  'east,  that  the  awful  suspense  of  our  spiritual  igno- 
rance ni'ght  be  removpu  ?  From  tiie  Utile  we  behold  of  Him 
in  t'l?  ofks  or  His  hands,  especially  in  our  bodies  and  spir- 
it::!, vv^  oi\o[nde  \b  I.  thete  is  the  st  ongest  probabiJiLy  that 
th  Ai:  lor  oCLiie  and  of  the  Universe  would  instruct  His 
c  '  i  .''en. 

And  no  /,  with  this  probability  strengthening  upon  it, 
Where  .shall  vne  human  mind  turn  to  fmc'  this  revelation  ? 
It  is  not  upoii  the  page  of  Nature,  for  that  has  been  studied 
in  va'n.  And  of  the  many  theories  which  have  been  pre- 
sented, each  has  in  its  turn  been  discarded  as  unsatisfactory. 
The  B'ble  is  now  presented  with  its  high  claims  to  a  divine 
origin,  and  the  human  mind  is  called  upon  Lo  render  a  ver- 
dict in  favor  of  this  volume,  as  being  a  production  of  infinite 
mind.  Its  defenders  say  that  it  brings  more  external  and 
internal  evidence  of  its  genuineness  and  authenticity,  than 
any  other  book  in  existence.  They  say  that  it  contains  all 
that  it  is  necessary  for  us  vo  know  concerning  the  nature  of 
the  Creative  Cause,  of  ou'selves,  our  duiies  and  our  destiny. 
They  claim  for  it  a  character  of  truthfulness  without  the 
slightesi.  mixtu"e  ofer.'or  ;  and  challenge  for  it  an  examina- 
tion by  the  light  of  all  learning  and  the  scrutiny  of  the 
sevcest  tests. 

That  this  book  is  "  t!)e  word  of  God,"  all  Christians  firm- 
ly believe.    To  review  the  many  powerful  arguments  which 


6  > 

sanctified  learning  has  brought  to  its  support^  would  be  a  task 
which  would  as  far  exceed  the  ability  ol"  the  present  speaker, 
as  it  would  be  inappropriate  to  i  his  occasion.  We  cannot 
forbear,  however,  alluding  to  one  of  its  internal  arguments^ 
which  alone,  we  lliink,  would  be  sufficient  to  commend  it  to 
every  heart  sincerely  seeking  after  truth.  It  is.  that  doctrines 
necessary  to  the  salvaiion  of  our  irhmorlal  souls,  which  could 
not  possibly  hiive  i)een  discovered  by  Unaided  humnn  intellect, 
are  clearly  and  satisfactorily  developed  in  ihe  Bible.  It  is  a 
trulh  not  only  asserted  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  bnl  corrobo- 
rated b}''  the  history  of  mind  that:"  the  world  by  wisdom 
knew  not  God."  Take  the  the'ori'es  concerning  the  Deity 
which  aie  the  offspring  of  the  most  gifted  m'nds  in  those 
ages  which  had  all  the  light  that  possibly  could  be  possessed 
without  the  Bible,  and  we  find  that  they  I'epresent  God  as  a 
Being  who,  with  all  the  greatness  wiiii  which  they  clothe 
Him,  is  only  an  Almighty  monster.  If  thns  the  great  have 
conceived  him  to  be,  wbatcaiVWe  expectMo  oe  the  ide.'S  of 
the  vulgar  ?  The  miis.s  hyve  m.uie  him  a  de.estable  wrelchy 
superior  to  themselres  only  iii  his  greater  ability  to  indulge 
more  frighifiil  lusts.  But  the  Bible  gives  us  a  view  of  His' 
nature,  whicii  is  as  sublime  as  it  is  consoling.  A  secret 
prompting  of  his  heart  told  man  that  iie  must  appease  God, 
because  he  was  sinful, and  was  exposed  to  ))unishment.  But 
the  world's  wise  m^n  could  not  tell  hiin  where  he  niiglit  be 
cleansed  of  liis  moral  defi'cmpni,  they  could  not  devise  any 
manner  of  mediation  between  him  and  his  God,  they  could 
propagate  no  pl.tn  of  salvaiion  which  would  suit  all  souls, 
under  all  circumstances,  io  the  eud  of  all  time.  This  the 
Bible  does!  It  reveals  a  God  who*  .'ttrinutes  of  justice  and 
mercy,  both  infinite,  kiss  each  oiliei-  upon  a  platform  which 
His  rigl)t  arm  has  thrown  up,  in  ihe  presence  of  the  Universe* 
for  the  salvaiion  of  a  worhl.  The  mightiest  human  intellect 
may  ponder  upon  the  sublimity  of  this  plan  for  ages,  and 
rise  from  the  study  with  e:cpanded  powers.  It  must  be  from 
the  Creator  of  all — the  book  wiiich  dcvelojies  such  glorious 
doctrines  !  As  Christians,  we  so  receive  it,  and  present  the 
Bible  to  the  world,  saying,  "  Here  is  the  Word  of  God  I" 


Of ?this  hook^  the  passage, of  Scripture  before  us  sqys,  it  is 
living  diXxA poioerfuL:     ;         ;  ,  .,, 

I,  As  our  God  is  living,  and  is  the, fountain  of  all  life,  and 
the  source  of  all  existence,,We  may  reasonably  expect  that 
the  worrls,- which. proceed  out  of  his^niouth  shall  .have  all  the 
elements  of  life,;  ,..Not  Ji.ke  the  spund  which  is  given  from, 
Aoinanimatething  when  a  mas,ter  hand  touches  it  cunningly, 

it;h9!S  the  tone  of  life  upon  it. 

:;  The  Word;  of: God  \s  living  light.  "The  entrance  of 
Thy  word.gi.veth  light,."  is  an  exclamation:  of  the  Psalmist, 
verified  in  the  world  by  innunierable  e:campl.e3. .  Apart  from, 
,the. teachings  of  the  Bible,  hpvy  darkerjed  is  the  humap  mind  ! 
It  is  true,  that  in,  Christiap  lands  many  men  do  seem  to  he 
possessed  of  expanded  powers  of  mind,  vyho  never  read  the 
J^ible,  and  who  have  never  been,  accustomed  even  in  child- 
hood to  its. teachings  ;  but  their  light  is  only  the  reflection  of 
ihat  which  glows  all  around  them  in  society.  A  conversation 
with  .such  men  would  soon,  discover  their  spiritual  darkness, 
.as. there  is  many  a  Nicodemus  who  is  celebrated  for  his 
Jearning.in  the  world,  and  yet  not  able  to  corpprehend  the 
simplest  d.octrine  taught  in  the  school  of  Christ.  An  ac- 
quaintance with  general  literature,  a  familiarity  with  the 
circle  of.lbe  sciences, a  close  study  of  the  arts,  will  not  supply 
the  lack  of  a.  devoted  .perusal  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The 
chamber  of  the  mind  may  be  well  furnished  with  the  rich 
tapestry  of  varied  learning,  and  the  graceful  statuary  of  polite 
letters,  but  unless  the  living  light  of  "the  word  of  God" 
.shall  illuminate  it,  its  elegant  adornment  will  be  useless. 
The  light  of  truth  adds  a  charm  to  all  beauty. 

.Again  :  We  very  frequently  find  men  in  the  lowest  walks 
of,  life,  on.  whose  powers  the  incubus  of  poverty  has  ever 
pressed,  who  never  had  the  polish  which  mingling  with  the 
intellectual  imparts,  but  who  have  been  converted  to  God  by 
his  Holy.  Spirit,  and  have  thenceforth  given  attention  to  the 
study  of  his  word.  How  perceptible  is  the  change  which  is 
produced  upon  their  minds  !  In  a  short  time  we  find  them 
speaking  understandingly  of  those  things  of  which  we  thought 
them  profoundly  ignorant.     And  why  is  this  ?    Because  they 


have  studied  the  word  of  God,  and  It  has  turned  their  mmds 
in  upon  themselves,  and  they  have  become  deeply  interested 
in  the  sublime  doctrines  of  the  Bible.  Their  minds  are  now 
more  ready  to  receive  instruction  in  secular  learning,  and 
they  have  become  theologians  and  metaphysicians  at  the  same 
time.     "  It  giveth  understanding  to  the  simple." 

Let  the  Bible,  "  Ihe  word  of  God,"  be  Uiken  to  a  heathen 
in  his  own  language.  It  finds  him  in  the  veriest  darkness* 
deceiving  himself  with  the  illusion  that  all  around  him  is 
light  But  the  living  light  of  the  word  of  God  plays  on  the 
image  before  which  he  is  bowed  in  his  degrading  worship, 
and  he  beholds  all  its  horrid  deformity.  He  turns  from  his 
Deity  wilh  disgust,  and  is  driven  out  a  godless  wretch. 
The  light  enters  his  mind,  and  discovers  to  him  the  filthy 
figures  which  crowd  his  imagination  ;  it  pierces  into  Ihe  heart 
and  reveals  its  moral  defilement  and  loailisome  leprosy. 
This  living  light  points  him  to  the  sword  of  justice  gleaming 
from  the  dark  cloud  of  the  true  God's  indignation  against  sin, 
and  he  is  ready  to  sink  into  despair.  But  a  concentration  of 
all  the  light  of  Ihis  wondrous  book  arrests  his  sinking  mind, 
and  with  trembling  he  follows  its  brightness  unlil  it  mantles 
the  cross  of  Calvary.  There  he  "  beholds  Ihe  Lamb  of  God 
which  takeih  away  the  sins  of  the  word."  The  pitying 
glance  of  that  eye  In  death's  agony  melLs  his  heart ;  the  blood 
from  that  pierced  side  sprinkles  him,  and  lo!  he  is  more 
spotless  than  infant  purity !  With  this  '-word  of  God"  in 
his  hand,  he  joyfully  pursues  lifers  rugged  way,  for  he  beholds 
his  path  growing  brighter  and  brighter  unto  the  perfect  day. 

But  the  "  word  of  God"  is  also  living  seed.  Deposited  in 
the  heart,  as  It  often  is,  by  some  unseen  agency,  it  germinates 
and  brings  forth  righteousness  and  bliss.  The  living  preacher 
is  he  whom  God  hath  appointed  to  sow  this  good  seed,  and 
the  field  is  the  world.  And  how  often  does  the  minister  go 
to  the  performance  of  his  public  duty  with  a  heart  weighed 
down  with  some  of  earth's  cares  or  sorrows  ;  how  often  does 
he  retire  from  the  altar  to  his  private  chamber,  feeling  that 
he  is  an  exceedingly  profitless  servant !  And  yet  that  very 
discourse  which  may  seem  to  him  a  failure,  may  be  blessed 


of  the  Lord  to  the  salvation  of  some  soul.  God  does  not 
always  show  the  spiritual  husbandman  the  first  quickening 
of  the  seed  he  sows.  Let  this  consolation  sustain  those  of 
us  who  minister  in  holy  things,  for  "  in  due  time  we  shall 
reap  if  we  faint  not."  At  the  family  altar,  as  well  as  in  the 
sanctuary,  the  good  seed  is  planted.  How  often  does  the' 
Spirit  of  God  bless  the  reading  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  in 
families  !  Fathers,  Mothers,  heads  of  families,  fail  not  daily 
to  gather  your  little  ones  to  the  reading  of  God's  holy  word; 
and  if  they  seem  thoughtless  be  not  discouraged,  for  the  liv- 
ing seed  is  silently  falling  upon  the  fallow  ground.  Many 
a  winter's  snow  may  come,  but  as  surely  as  the  God  of  the 
sun  and  rain  exists  it  shall  survive.  The  voice  of  the  moth- 
er will  be  remembered,  when  ail  else  connected  with  child- 
hood shall  be  forgotten.  It  is  the  last  music  which  dies  out 
of  a  boy's  heart.  Passages  of  "  the  word  of  God"  in  the 
mother's  tone  will  often  ring  upon  the  heart  of  the  man  when' 
wrinkles  and  furrows  are  on  his  time-worn  visage.'  Words' 
of  instruction  and  consolation,  and  powerful  appeals  from 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  breathed  upon  his  mind  in  earlier  days 
at  the  family  altar,  but  lost  in  the  lapse  of  time,  will  come 
meltingly  upon  the  young  wanderer's  heart,  when  the  thou- 
sand mouths  of  the  Ocean  shall  5'awn  to  swallow  him,  and  the 
storm-spirit  pour  its  unearthly  shriek  upon  his  ears.  In 
these  instances,  and  they  are  numerous,  we  find  a  fulfilment 
of  the  prophecy, '•' For  as  the  rain  cometh  down,  and  the 
snow  from  heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither,  but  watereth' 
the  earth,  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud,  that  it  may  give 
seed  to  the  sower,  and  bread  to  the  eater  ;  so  shall  my  word 
be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  my  mouth  ;  it  shall  not  return  un- 
to me  void,  but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please,  and 
it  shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereto  I  sent  it." 

"  The  loord  of  God  is  living  /"  Contrasted  with  it,  all 
ot-her  religious  theories  are  lifeless,  all  philosophy  is  dead. 
Let  the  Natural  Religionist  read  the  page  of  that  volume, 
which  he  thinks  tells  all  that  the  immortal  spirit  needs  to 
knowr,  and  If  he  find  a  reply  it  will  tell  him  that  there  is  a 
a  Mighty  Spirit  in  the  Universe.     But   of  the   character  of 


10 

that  Being  its  teachings  will  be  ambiguous,  for  wliilc  it  has 
lessons  of  his  love  of  beauty  written  with  the  pencils  of  light 
on  the  graceful  flower  ;  and  speaks  of  his  love  of  grandeur  on 
the  rocky  tablet  of  the  immense  mountain,  on    the    glorious 
scroll  of  the  firmament,  and  on  the    unmeasured   undulating 
face  of  the  ocean — it  reveals  his  terrible  misiht  in  the  volca- 
no,  the  conflagration,  the  tempest,  and  the  deluge.  And  what 
are   the  responses   of  the    oracle    of  the  heathen  ?     With 
a  heart  burdened  with  unspeakably  interesting  questions,  he 
rushes  into  the  temple  and   presence    of  his  idol.     Tell  me, 
oh,  tell  me  !  he  cries, — what  and  Vv-here  the  Great  Spirit  is? 
And  what  am  I  ?  and  whither   bound    as   carried  down  this 
rushing  stream  of  life  ?  Beyond  the  portentous  clouds  which 
I  see  settling  most  heavilv  before  me,  are  there  torments  or 
is  there  bliss  ?     Does  an  eternal  sunlight  play  on  the  blessed 
islands  in  that  veiled  state,  or  do  thunders  and  lightningsand 
a  horrible  tempest  empty  their  furies  on    the   ruined   soul  ? 
Oh,  when  this  tiresome  strife  of  present  existence  shall  closcy 
shall  I  have  seen  but  the  beginning  of  sorrows  ?     Is  not  the 
great  Spirit  lovely,  and  will  he  not   save  me  ? — The  God  is 
silent,  the  oracle  is  dumb!  The  Priest  who  conducts  the  unhal- 
lowed service  of  its  damning  rites  points  the  enquiring  wretch  to 
the  instrument  of  torture,  to  blasted  hopes,  to  the  hearts's  finer 
feelings  crushed,  to  a  dark  grave  and  to  a  hopeless  hereafter. 
It  is  not  so  with  the  word  of  our  God,  it  is  quick  and  life- 
giving.     As  when  the  Incarnation  of  that  Word  stood  at  the 
grave  of  Lazarus  and  commanded  the   buried    one   to  come 
forth,  so  "the  word  of  God"  now  speaks  to  the   soul   which 
is  dead  in  trespasses  and  in  sins,  and    lo  !  the   tlirill    of  life 
shoots  through  its  faculties.     And  when  the  enquiring  spirit 
asks  of  this  our  oracle  it  finds  a  ready  and  most   satisfactory 
answer.     Every  objection  is  anticipated,  every  fear  removed 
every  trouble  soothed,  every  wound  gently  bound  up.     The 
living  Word  speaks  to  the  soul  and  bids    it   be  happy,  even 
in  this  world.     It  tells  the  Spirit  that  God  is  love,  that  eve- 
ry provision  is  made  for  its   wants,   that   in    this  matchless 
mercy  and  unfathomed   wisdom.  He    has   satisfied    the  de- 
mands of  Justice  and  cftcctcd  its  emancipation.     It  speaks  to 


11 

llie  Sjiirit  and  its  chains  fall  off.  and  in  the  majesty  of  truth,' 
in  the  strength  of  freedom,  and  in  the  light  of  love,  it  treads 
the  temple  of  that  God,  whose  living  word  reveals  the  high 
and  holy  destiny  which  awaits  it.  It  beholds  in  all  things 
of  beauty  around  it  the  developement  of  that  undying  love 
which  watches  all  its  paths,  and  which  is  preparing  for  it  be- 
yond the  tomb  a  more  glorious  habitation.  For  not  only 
does  this  wokd  impart  a  spiritual  life  here,  but  it  reveals  to 
the  soul  the  state  of  unceasing:  and  blissful  existence  in  the 
Avorld  which  is  to  come,  anl  informs  the  Christian  that  he  is 
now  only  upon  the  lowest  step  of  that  sublime  pyramid  of 
life  which  he  shall  be  everlastingly  ascending,  whose  sum- 
mit is  lost  in  the  inconceivably  intense  brightness  of  JEHO- 
VAH'S peerless  glory. 

And  this  word  of  God,  so  living  and  life-giving  must  re- 
main forever.  It  bears  in  itself  the  elements  of  indestructi- 
ble existence.  Heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away,  but  it  shall 
not  be  shaken  ;  for  the  throne  of  the  Eternal  must  fall  and 
the  light  of  all  life  expire,  before  the  words  which  he  speaks 
shall  fail.  And  here  the  Christian  stands,  planting  his  feet 
upon  the  Rock  of  Ages,  while  he  defies  the  tempest  to  rob 
him  of  his  immortality,  or  shake  his  trust  in  God.  Truly, 
the  word  of  God  is  living. 

II.  The  second  characteristic  of  the  word  of  God,  is  that  it  is 
powerful.  When  that  word  went  out  at  creation  it  travers- 
ed the  ocean  of  chaos  and  startled  myriads  of  worlds  into  ex- 
istence. When  that  Word  appeared  on  earth  in  the  flesh  it 
was  a  power  which  suspended  the  laws  of  nature,  working 
astonishing  miracles  and  destroying  the  power  of  sin.  That 
Word,  as  written  out  in  a  volume,  is  powerful,  even  "  thfi 
power  of  God  unto  salvation." 

The  effect  which  the  perusal  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  has 
upon  a  man  is  very  different  from  the  study  of  any  human 
composition.  There  is  nothing  in  the  writings  of  the  learn- 
ed, in  the  theories  of  philosophers,  to  change  a  man's  entire 
nature.  Even  those  who  have  been  the  authors  of  the  best 
moral  precepts  have  frequently  been  most  wretched  exem- 
plars in  practice!'     But  the  Bible,  having  been  written  by  the 


12 

all-wise  God,  through  his  amanuenses,  holy  inspired  men,  is  so 
perfectly  adapted  to  every  circumstance  under  which  every 
man  is  placed,  that  it  exercises  a  power  over  the  human 
mind  and  heart  which  nothing  else  possesses.  An  arm  of 
Omnipotence  as  it  is,  it  beats  down  the  bulwarks  of  pride 
and  unbelief,  bursts  open  the  doors  of  the  heart,  seizes  the 
lion  in  his  fury  and  binds  him  with  fetters  of  adamant.  It 
leaps  from  heaven,  a  blessed  preserver,  into  the  torrent  of 
.sin  on  which  the  soul  of  man  is  borne  to  destruction,  rolls 
back  the  tide  of  nature,  brings  him  up  from  the  fearful  abyss 
and  places  him  on  an  eminence  from  which  he  can  behold 
his  former  danger  and  adore  his  Redeemer. 

The  word  of  God  by  enlightening  the  intellect  has  given 
man  the  ability  to  see  the  way  which  leadeth  to  God  through 
Jesus  Christ.  At  the  foot  of  the  mercy  seat  he  hath  been 
.pardoned,  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross  he  hath  been  cleansed. 
With  his  mind  purified,  his  affections  hallowed,  his  soul  sanc- 
tified, the  man  hath  become  a  benefactor.  He  takes  no  lon- 
ger any  pleasure  in  living  simply  for  himself.  His  mind  is 
now  lifted  fi'om  its  filth  and  degradation  and  gathers  percep- 
tion of  harmony  and  beauty.  Here  we  have  the  foundation 
of  the  Arts  and  Sciences  which  adorn  life  and  administer 
more  refined  pleasures  to  the  immortal  spirit.  It  is  be- 
cause the  Word  of  God  is  in  your  midst,  that  your  houses 
are  palaces  and  your  meals  banquets.  As  the  intellect  in- 
creases in  its  elevation  it  slathers  clearer  ideas  of  relations, 
and  the  Word  of  God  furnishes  all  necessary  standards  of 
judgment  in  these  cases.  The  husband  learns  to  use  his  su- 
periority as  not  abusing  it,  and  the  wife  submits  to  the  hus- 
band, not  es  to  a  master,  but  as  to  a  stronger  companion;  not 
as  a  degradation,  but  as  a  relief  and  a  pleasure.  The  parent 
learns  to  value  his  child,  not  as  a  slave  to  his  caprice,  but  as 
a  stream  of  intellect  which  he  has  the  ability  to  direct  for  its 
own  endless  happiness  and  the  benefit  of  a  world.  The  child 
is  now  bound  to  the  parent,  not  by  a  feeling  of  servile  fear, 
not  by  a  tic  which  weakens  as  the  parent  grows  helpless  with 
age,  and  breaks  when  he  becomes  a  burden,  but  a  love  which 
is  respectful  when  the  parent  is  at  the  fullness  of  his  matu- 


1  " 
lo 

rity  and  becomes  more  tender  and  refined  as  the  infirmities 
of  years  press  him  down.  Having  thus  given  to  man  a  code 
of  morals  to  govern  a  family,  the  observance  of  which  will 
,be  crowned  with  domestic  bliss,  and  the  least  deviation  froiUi-'^ 
which  will  produce  discord  and  misery,  it  leads  man  to  look 
upon  his  neighbor  as  his  brother,  and  a  member  of  the  great 
family  of  which  God  is  the  common  Father.  "Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself"  (Compare  that  one  injunction 
with  the  code  of  morals  of  heathen  philosophers.)  Thus  we 
see  the  social  compact  strengthened  by  the  holy  influence  of 
the  Bible.  But  man  has  certain  rights  to  be  guarded. 
The  Bible  clearly  sets  them  forth  in  a  tone  of  authority 
which  is  satisfactory,  rebuking  the  oppressor,  giving  strength 
to  the  oppressed  to  assert  the  truth  and  yet  restraining  him 
from  all  acts  of  unlawful  violence.  We  here  find  the  pov/er 
of  the  Bible  to  give  a  balance  to  Society  and  to  erect  a  sound 
fabric  of  Government.  The  man  changed  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  that  Word  which  is  powerful,  is  not  satiS' 
fied  to  have  a  proper  government  established,  and  the  arts 
and  sciences  flourishing;  his  heart,  now  a  fountain  of  good- 
ness, goes  out  towards  his  fellow  men.  This  creates  the  be- 
nevolent institutions  which  are  the  glory  of  Bible  lands.  We 
thus  sec  the  influence  of  the  Word  of  God  upon  communities 
by  changing  individuals  and  giving  that  direction  to  the 
strength  of  their  heads  and  hearts  which  was  originally  in- 
tended by  the  great  Creator. 

The  joreac/iz«^'' of  "the  word  of  God,"  hovv^  powerful  it 
has  been  !  Before  it  the  bold  face  has  blanched  and  the  stout 
heart  quailed.  The  proud  boast  of  the  wicked  has  been  si- 
lenced, the  mockings  of  the  fool  have  been  hushed.  The 
lion  and  the  tiger  have  been  tamed,  and  the  heart  of  the  - 
lamb  has  been  made  powerful  for  good.  '  The  torrent  intel- 
lect which  was  devastating  whole  regions  of  mind  has  been 
turned  into  the  channels  of  benificence,  and  the  powers  that 
stagnated  in  indolence  have  been  sent  forth  to  irrigate  the 
waste  and  weary  land.  It  has  thrown  open  the  prison  doors 
and  set  the  captive  free.  It  has  poured  light  in  upon  the 
.depths  of  darkness.     It  has  gone  into  the  midst  of  commuui- 


It 

tics,  and  under  iUs  influence,  the  ignorant  have  become  wise, 
the  churl  liberal,  the  spendthrift  economical,  the  vulgar  re- 
•  fined,  and  the  sinner  a  saint.  Like  oil  it  has  allayed  the  tu- 
multuous waves  of  stiife.  It  has  dashed  down  misrule — 
trampled  upon  anarchy,  and  lifted  up  the  comely  form  of 
fainting  order.  It  has  extended  the  sceptre  of  mercy,  and 
arranged  the  scales  of  justice.  It  has  reformed  the  laws  and 
their  executor.  As  the  word  of  God  has  been  spoken  out  by 
the  lips  of  truth,  Empires  have  been  convulsed,  crowns  have 
fallen,  and  kingdoms  have  passed  away.  Its  consolations 
have  been  as  powerful  as  its  reformatory  energy.  The  wid- 
ow and  the  orphan  have  had  their  hearts  to  leap  within  them, 
and  the  fainting  traveller  over  earth's  desert  has  felt  the  gift 
of  new  life  as  this  Word  of  Power  has  called  him  to  the  wa- 
ters. Its  power  has  disrobed  Death  of  its  terrors  and  depriv- 
ed the  grave  of  its  victory  ;  and  tlie  weak  child  and  feeble 
woman  have  calmly  walked  do\yn  tO  their  resting  place  with 
a  holy  smile  on  their  countenances.  Even  before  the  dark- 
ness of  the  toKib  had  entirely  shrouded' them,  they  have  seen 
the  first  light  of  a  glorious  and  eternal  morning. 

It  has  been  powerful  against  the  enemies  of  God.  Every 
thing  which  human  ingenuit}"^  and  infernal  malignity  could 
devise  have  assailed  it.  And  yet,  like  the  billow-beaten 
ocean-i'ock,  it  has  been  immovcd,  while  the  waves  of  opposi- 
tion have  fallen  back  into  spray,  and  the  lightnings  of  perse- 
cution havebecn  woveninto  a  diadem  of  glory  toadorn  itssum- 
mit.  And  while  God  lives  it^tvY/ remain — itivi/l  be  powerful. 
And  why  is  the  ]3ible  living  Qud  poiao-ful /  Because 
the  Spirit  of  the  Living  and  Almighty  God  is  in  it.  *'  All 
Scripture  is  given  b}'  inspiration  of  God."  Take  His  Holy 
Spirit  from  it,  and  it  will  be  as  lifeless  and  as  powerless  as  a 
dead  body.  If  we  could  preach  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible 
without  any  assistance  from  the  spirit  of  God,  we  should  find 
"^  it  as  useless  as  declaiming  the  orations  of  Cicero.  Let  us, 
then,  remember,  in  our  private  study  of  the  Scriptures,  that 
wc  are  not  reading  merely  the  writings  of  the  Prophets  and 
the  Apostles,  but  endeavor  to  feel  each  word  as  though  it 
were   spoken    immediately  from  the  great  God  our  Savior, 


15 

out  of  heaven  and  in  an  audible  voice.  In  our  efforts  to  sup- 
ply the  world  with  the  Bible,  let  us  keep  ever  upon  our 
hearts  the  assurance  that  vve  are  not  sending  the  words  of 
worldly  wisdom,  but  "the  word  of  God  which  is  living  and 
powerful,"  and  which  will  do  good  to  the  bodies  and  souls 
of  our  fellow  men.  And  Oh  !  let  us  who  are  engaged  in  the 
hallowed  co-operation  with  the  blessed  Trinity,  take  the 
more  diligence  to  make  our  own  peace,  calling  and  election 
sure  !  If  the  gifted  and  sainted  author  of  the  text,  after 
having  seen  Christ  and  possessed  the  power  of  working  mir- 
acles, entertained  the  slightest  apprehension  lest  after  having 
preached  unto  others  he  should  himself  become  a  cast  away, 
let  us  not  be  satisfied  unless  we  feel  continually  that  God's 
livingwordispowerfulevenuntothe  salvation  of  our  own  souls. 

And  now,  brethren  beloved,  this  sacred  gift  is  deposited  in 
our  hands  by  its  holy  Author,  to  be  dispensed  to  the  whole 
world.  It  is  a  Testament :  our  Fleavenly  Father's  will.  As 
the  lines  have  fallen  to  us  In  a  pleasant  place,  and  we  have  a 
goodly  heritage,  let  us  not  forget  our  brethren  who  are  away  in 
the  darkness  of  other  lands.  What  shall  we  say  unto  God  our 
Father  in  justification  of  our  conduct  if  we  suffer  them  to  per- 
ish without  telling  them  of  our  home  in  heaven?  It  may 
cost  us  some  sacrifice,  but  let  us  keep  ever  before  our  eyes  the 
example  of  Him  "  who  though  he  was  rich  yet  for  our  sakes 
became  poor,thatwe  through  his  poverty  might  be  maderich.'^ 
And  "  if  God  so  loved  us  we  ought  also  to  love  one  another." 

Father,  when  you  retire  from  the  sanctuary  this  morning 
and  see  the  happy  faces  of  your  loved  little  ones  around  your 
board,  think  of  your  brother  in  heathendom  who  has  no  do- 
mestic comforts,  no  pleasant  fire-side,  no  hallowed  altar-spot. 
Christian  Mother,  let  your  mind  fly  from  this  temple  this 
hour,  to  behold  that  mother  who  is  now  committing  her  oft^- 
spring  to  the  flames  or  to  the  waves.*  Think  not  that  that  mo- 

*  To  impress  this  remark,  the  following  anecdote  v.'as  related :  "A  Hindoo 
woman  cast  her  child,  between  three  and  four  years  old,  into  the  Ganges,  as  an 
offering  to  the  Goddess.  The  little  creature  made  its  way  to  a  raft  of  bamboos 
that  happened  to  be  floating  by,  and  seizing  one  end  of  it  has  drifted  along,  cry- 
ing to  its  unnatural  parent  lor  help.  Perceiving  from  the  shore  the  dangers  of 
the  child's  escape,  she  plunged  into  the  water,  tore  away  its  hold,  broke  its  neck, 
and  hurled  its  life-warm  corse  into  the  middle  of  die  current,  by  Vvhich  it  was 
soon  drifted  out  of  sight." — Tyermmi's  and  Bennett's  Journal. 


IG 

ther's  heart  never  knew  woman's  feelings  !  "When  she  first 
pressed  that  child  to  her  bosom  she  felt  the  rapturous  thrill  of 
a  mother's  pure,  devoted  affection.  But  the  iron  heel  of  a  ty- 
rannical religion  has  crushed  the  buds  of  her  love.  Would 
you  save  that  innocent?  Send  the  Bible  and  its  power  shall 
tear  down  the  temple  of  the  idol  and  erect  the  altar  of  that  Re- 
ligion whose  essence  is  love.  Lady,  robed,  jewelled,  accom-  . 
plished  and  happy, — think  of  your  destitute  sister  in  the  dark- 
ened land  !  Less  fair,  perhaps,than  yoursclf,but  Oh  !  she  hath 
a  soul  as  immortal  as  your  own  !  And  if  you  leave  her  to  die 
in  her  degradation,  at  Christ's  judgment  that  she  may  thus  up- 
braid thee: — I  was  hungry,  and  blind,  and  oppressed,  and  sinful, 
andd3'ing;  your  hands  held  that  which  would  have  relieved  me, 
the  tale  of  my  wo  fell  upon  your  ear,  but  with  a  profitless  word 
of  commiseration  you  turned  coldly  away  to  the  sound  of  the  vi- 
ol,and  theexcitement  of  the  dance — and  I  died!  How  then  can 
the  Lord  turn  uponyou  the  smiles  of  his  love,  when  he  hath  said 
that  "if  any  man  have  notthe  spirit  of  Chris' ,he  is  none  of  his  ?" 
And  now,  in  behalf  of  the  North  Carolina  Bible  Society,  I 
appeal  to  this  congregation.  I  feel  a  solemnity  come  over  me 
v/hen  an  appeal  on  behalf  of  the  cause  of  Christ  is  to  be  made 
to  an  assembly  of  Christian  people.  It  is  upon  me  now,  for 
I  know  that  for  all  I  have  said  I  must  give  an  account ;  and 
lest  I  have  said  said  something  amiss,  lest  I  have  left  some 
appeal  untouched,  there  is  a  fear  in  my  heart.  And  when  I 
look  around  upon  you  and  know  that  God  ihe  Father, 
and  the  blessed  Saviour,  and  the  Holy  Sanctifier  are  here, 
that  the  Godhead  knows  the  power  of  His  own  word  and  .^ 
hears  the  thousand  cries  and  shrieks  of  a  heathen  world,  and 
that  an  account  is  to  be  taken  of  the  doings  of  a  crowded,  in- 
tellectual and  wealthy  assembly  of  Christians,  oh  !  how  can 
I  but  feel  for  the  result  ?  Remember,  my  brethren,  that  "with 
what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again." 
May  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church  speedily  send  the  light 
and  health,  the  lifcand  power  of  his  Word  to  allnationsi  And 
let  us  remember  that  he  has  appointed  human  instrumentality 
to  accomplish  this  glorious  consummation  as  wc  unite  our 
hearts  in  responding  Ame.v,  and  A.aiex  ! 


Lp 


VALEDICTORY  SERMON, 


DELIVERED 


IN  CHmST  CHURCH, 


RALEIGH,  N.  C. 


BY 


RET.  GEORGE  IT.  FREEMAIV,  D.  D. 


ON  HIS  RELINQUISHING  THE  PASTORAL  CHARGE 


OF   SAID   CHURCH. 


RALEIGH: 

rRIKTXO    BT    "WESTON  R.  GAt.£S,    OFFICE    OF    TH£    BAXEIGH  REQISTEB, 

1841. 


SERMON. 


II  Corinthians,  xiii  Chap.  11. 

"  Finally,  Brethren,  farewell.      Be  perfect,  be  of  good  comfort,  be  of 
one  mind,  live  in  peace;  and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  you." 

These  words  were  addressed  to  the  Christian  disciples  at 
Corinth.  Among  these  Corinthians,  St.  Paul  had  formerly 
laboured  for  the  space  of  nearly  two  years ;  having  been  the 
first  to  set  before  them  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God. — 
During  this  time,  he  had  had  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing 
the  conversion  of  considerable  numbers  to  the  Christian  faith, 
and  of  seeing  the  Church  well  and  permanently  established. 
But  being  afterwards  called  away  by  other  duties,  he  soon 
had  the  mortification  to  learn,  that  the  good  work,  which  he 
had  been  instrumental  in  accomplishing,  had  become  sadly 
marred  by  the  introduction  of  a  contentious  and  schis- 
matical  spirit ;  that  the  Church,  which  he  had  bestowed  so 
much  pains  in  establishing,  was  split  up  into  parties;  that 
trrievous  abuses,  both  of  Christian  doctrine  and  Christian 
practice,  had  crept  in  among  them;  and  that,  through  the 
machinations  of  an  unauthorized  Teacher,  his  own  influence 
and  authority  were  greatly  diminished.  Being  moved  by  this 
information,  he  wrote  with  promptitude  his  first  Epistle ; 
in  which,  he  boldly  asserted  his  spiritual  authority  over  them ; 
exposed  the  insidious  arts  of  the  self-constituted  Apostle ; 
reproved  the  Corinthians  for  their  errors  and  excesses,  and 
threatened  them  with  the  strong  arm  of  discipline. 

This  letter,  having  produced  the  desired  effect,  in  awaken- 
ing them  to  a  just  sense  of  their  faults  and  bringing  them  to 
a  deep  feeling  of  penitence,  the  compassionate  Apostle  wrote 


to  them  again,  in  order  to  comfort  them  in  their  sorrow, 
occasioned  by  his  former  severity,  to  prepare  them  for  an 
intended  visit,  and  to  confirm  them  in  those  Christian  doc- 
trines and  principles  which  he  had,  from  the  first,  so  care- 
fully inculcated. 

In  this  Epistle,  he  employed  considerable  space  in  apolo- 
gizing for  himself  against  certain  charges  and  ijisinuations 
which  had  been  thrown  out,  respecting  his  sincerity  and  in- 
tegrity in  the  discharge  of  his  Ministry,  and  in  justifying 
his  conduct  by  recounting  the  evidences  of  his  Apostleship, 
the  scenes  of  sufiering  in  which  he  had  borne  a  distinguished 
part,  and  the  labours  which  he  had  undergone,  and  the  doc- 
trines which  he  had  preached  in  the  course  of  his  Ministry. 
In  conclusion,  he  bade  them,  for  the  present,  an  afiectionate 
farewell ;  summing  up  the  particulars  of  his  parting  advice, 
in  the  words  of  the  Text — "  Finally,  Brethren,  farewell.  Be 
perfect,  be  of  good  comfort,  be  of  one  mind,  live  in  peace ; 
and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  you.'' 

And,  brethren,  may  I  not  with  propriety  adopt  these  words 
of  the  Apostle  as  the  basis  of  my  parting  counsel  to  you  ? — 
Though  no  Apostle,  certainly,  in  the  sense  in  which  St. 
Paul  was ;  though  destitute  of  inspiration,  though  standing 
at  an  immeasurable  distance  below  him  in  authority,  in  zeal, 
in  wisdom,  in  devotedness  to  the  cause  of  our  common  Mas- 
ter; yet,  like  him,  may  I  not,  on  this  last  occasion  of  ray  ap- 
pearance before  you  as  your  Minister,  refer  to  the  past  exer- 
cise of  my  Ministry  among  you,  and  leave  with  you  a  word 
of  exhortation  with  respect  to  the  future  ? 

When  I  came  first  among  you,  "  I  came  not,"  as  you  will 
readily  bear  witness,  "  with  excellency  of  speech,  or  of  ivis- 
dom  ;"  and  during  the  space  of  eleven  years,  I  have  con- 
tinued with  you,  not  in  any  vain  confidence  of  an  ability  and 
strength  at  all  proportionate  to  the  importance  of  the  sta- 
tion which  I  have  occupied,  but  "  in  iveakjicss,  and  fear, 
and  much  trembling.^'      Nevertheless,  according  to  my 


ability,  and  agreeably  to  my  understanding  of  the  truth  of 
God,  I  have  made  known  unto  you  the  way  of  life.  I  com- 
menced my  Ministry  here,  by  spreading  before  you,  from 
this  same  Epistle  of  St.  Paul,  the  nature  and  obligations  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  together  with  the  correlative  dut}^ 
of  those  for  whom  that  ministry  is  provided.  Ambassa- 
dors for  Christ,  heralds  of  the  Cross,  stewards  of  the  mys- 
teries of  God,  watchmen  upon  the  walls  of  Zion,  we  are 
called  upon,  (I  showed  you  from  the  Apostle,)  to  "renounce 
the  hidden  things  of  dishonesty,"  not  to  "  walk  in  crafti- 
ness," nor  to  "  handle  the  word  of  God  deceitfully,"  "  but, 
by  Tnanifestation  of  the  truth,  to  commend  ourselves,"  if 
possible,  "  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God ;" 
and  in  furtherance  of  this  great  object,  to  "preach  not  our- 
selves, but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  and  ourselves  your  ser- 
vants for  Jesus  sake."  And  having  shown  you  what  it  was 
to  preach  one's  self,  and  what  to  preach  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord, 
I  inferred  and  inculcated  your  duty  in  relation  to  a  preached 
Gospel — proving,  that  liwe,  the  Ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  are 
bound  to  lay  aside  all  selfish  considerations,  and  to  preach 
unto  you  the  pure  Gospel  of  Christ,  the  obligation  is  equal- 
ly strong  upon  you,  to  receive  and  profit  by  our  preaching. 

Thus  it  was  that  I  commenced  my  Ministry  as  a  Preacher 
of  the  Gospel  among  you ;  and  from  that  time  to  the  present 
moment,  it  has  been  my  constant  aim  to  set  before  you,  with  all 
plainness,  and  with  what  of  power  I  possessed,  the  doctrines 
and  the  precepts  of  the  blessed  Gospel  of  Peace — the  whole 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus — and  to  urge  upon  you,  by  the  aid  of 
such  considerations  as  the  vast  importance  of  your  eternal 
interests  most  readily  suggested,  to  receive  the  truth  in  sin- 
cerity, to  embrace  the  hope  set  before  you,  and  thus  to  "  lay 
up  in  store  for  yourselves,  a  good  foundation  against  the  time 
to  come,  that  you  might  lay  hold  on  eternal  life." 

To  this  end  I  have  said  much  to  you  of  your  naturally  sin- 
ful, helpless,  perishing  condition,  labouring,  by  appeals  to 


6 

your  own  experience  anc!  observation,  as  well  as  to  the  holy 
Scriptures,  to  convince  you  of  this  fundamental  truth ;  so 
that  being  made  sensible  of  your  disease  and  its  fatal  conse- 
quences, you  might  become  anxious  for  relief,  and  be  induced 
earnestly  to  apply  to  that  glorious  remedy  which  the  mercy 
of  Pleaven  has  provided. 

This  remedy,  I  have  taught,  is  to  be  found  in  the  great, 
the  tremendous  sacrifice  of  the  Cross;  by  which,  atonement 
was  made  for  sin,  so  that  God  might  consistently  with  justice 
pardon  the  sinner,  and  through  which,  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  procured  for  the  illumination  of  your  understand- 
ings, the  conversion  of  your  hearts,  and  the  sanctification  of 
your  whole  nature,  soul,  body  and  spirit.  And  to  this  sac- 
rifice of  the  Cross,  I  have  constantly  exhorted  you  to  apply, 
with  penitent  and  contrite  hearts,  in  the  full  assurance  of 
faith  that  your  application  would  not  be  rejected — pointing 
you,  for  proof,  to  the  kindly  invitation  of  the  Son  of  God  him- 
self to  "all  the  weary  and  heavy  laden"  to  "  come  unto  him" 
and  "  find  rest  unto  their  souls,"  and  his  gracious  declaration, 
that  "  him  that  cometh  unto  him  he  would  in  no  wise  cast 
out."  I  have  encouraged  you  by  the  example  of  the  prodi- 
gal son,  to  "arise  and  go  to  your  Father,"  and  by  referring 
you  to  the  most  solemn  asseveration  of  our  blessed  Lord,  that 
"  there  is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God  over  one 
sinner  that  repenteth,  more  than  over  ninety  and  nine  just 
persons  which  need  no  repentance." 

I  have  exhorted  you  to  ^^ strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate,"  and  urged  the  necessity  of  so  doing  from  the  conside- 
ration that  "many  will  seek  to  enter  in"  who  "shall  not  be 
able,"  because  they  seek  not  earnestly  and  perseveringly,  or 
because  they  seek  amiss — -and  I  have  exhorted  you  to  labour 
diligentl}'^  to  "  make  your  calling  and  your  election  sure"  for 
the  reason,  that  though  "  many  are  called,"  there  are  but 
"  few  chosen,"  and  that  it  is  only  they  who  "coiitinite  in  the 
word  of  Christ,^'  that  will  be  counted  his  "disciples  indeed.'' 


I  have  cautioned  you  against  mistaking  the  use  of  the  out- 
ward forms  and  the  prqfessio7i  oi  reVigion,  for  religion  itself; 
showing  you,  by  the  case  of  the  Pharisee  and  Publican,  that 
God  looks  at  the  real  emotions  of  the  heart,  rather  than  to  the 
expressions  of  the  lips,  and  that  he  who  approaches  the  mercy 
seat  with  the  earnest  cry,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner," 
will  go  down  to  his  house  justified,  rather  than  he  who  may 
boastfully  exclaim,  "  God  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as  other 
men  are ;"  and  proving  that  no  imagined  perfections  of  char- 
acter will  avail  you  in  the  sight  of  God,  while  it  can  be  em- 
phatically said  to  you,  as  our  blessed  Lord  once  said  to  an 
amiable  youth,  "  one  thing  thou  lackestj"  that,  though  it  is 
easy  to  sai/  to  the  author  of  our  holy  religion,  "  Lord,  I  will 
follow  thee  whithersoever  thou  goest,"  yet  he  who  would  be 
the  disciple  of  Christ  in  reality,  must  not  only  say,  but  do — 
must  "deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  him;" 
that  "  not  every  one  that  saith  unto  him  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the 
will"  of  God  ;  that  whatsoever  a  man's  profession  may  be,  if 
he  be  not  truly  "/or  Christ,  he  is  against  him;"  if  he  gather 
not  with  him  he  scattereth  abroad;  and  that  "  if  any  man 
have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his.'' 

I  have  warned  you  of  the  fruitlessness  and  the  fatality  of 
attempting  to  "  serve  tivo  masters,"  so  opposite  as  are  God 
and  the  world ;  of  the  great  danger  you  incur,  by  such  an 
attempt,  of  coming  under  the  condemnation  of  those  who  are 
"  lovers  of  pleasures  more  than  lovers  of  God ;"  of  the  fatuity 
of  suffering  yourselves  to  "  be  deceived"  by  the  vain  hope 
that  you  may  continue  to  " soio  to  ihe  flesh"  and  yet  "reap 
of  the  spirit;"  of  the  folly  of  delaying  your  repentance,  like 
Felix,  "to  a  more  convenient  season,"  or  presuming,  like 
some  of  old,  on  the  "long  suffering  of  God,"  as  if  he  were 
"  slack  concerning  his  promises"  and  threatenings,  "as  some 
men  count  slackness." 

I  have  warned  you  also  against  the  delusion  of  expecting 


s 

to  be  justified  before  God,  either  by  your  own  good  works, 
or  by  a  barren  and  unfruitful  faith — against  the  imprudence  of 
affording  opportunity  to  "  any  man  to  spoil  you  of  your  faith 
through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit;"  and  against  the  awful 
danger,  to  which  you  are  liable,  of  being  "hardened  through 
the  deceitfulness  of  sin." 

In  seasons  of  trial  and  affliction,  I  have  counselled  you  "not 
to  despise  the  chastening  of  the  Lord,"  remembering  that 
"whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth,"  that  "they  who 
sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy,"  and  that,  if  you  "  cast  your 
burden  on  the  Lord,  he  will  sustain  you."  In  the  hour  of 
doubt  and  despondency,  I  have  encouraged  you  to  "wait 
still  upon  the  Lord,"  in  the  full  confidence  that  he  would 
"  strengthen  your  hearts,"  to  "  be  of  good  comfort  and  arise 
for  he  calleth  you  to  him,"  and,  under  the  severest  trials,  not 
to  ^'fear,^^  for,  if  you  do  indeed  belong  to  the  "  little  flock" 
of  Christ,  you  have  the  assurance  that  "it  is  your  father's 
good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom." 

In  fine,  so  far  as  space  of  time,  and  my  abilities  have  allowed, 
I  have  fully  spread  before  you,  I  trust,  the  blessed  Gospel  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  "  I  have  not  shunned 
to  declare  unto  you  the  ivhole  counsel  of  God;"  and,  I  think 
I  may  say,  that  it  has  ever  been  my  principal  aim  to  render 
that  "  counseV^  effectual  to  your  spiritual  and  eternal  well- 
being,  by  striving  as  much  as  in  me  lay,  to  keep  always  in 
view  the  great  object  of  my  ministry,  so  as  to  be  able  in  sin- 
cerity to  say,  "God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  save  in  the 
Cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is  cru- 
cified unto  me  and  I  unto  the  world." 

But,  brethren,  these  things  are  not  said  by  way  of  boasting. 
Alas  !  how  little  reason  have  I  to  glory  in  what  I  have  done  ! 
Even  if  "the  sjnriV^  had  always  been  "willing,"  0,  how 
weak  has  been  the  flesh  !  Had  I  been  diligent  and  faithful 
in  performing  among  you  all  that  it  was  in  my  power  to  do,  or, 
possessing  the  ability,  had  I  fully  discharged  all  the  duties 


9 

appertaining  to  my  station,  still  I  should  have  had  no  ground 
for  boasting;  but  must  have  acknowledged  myself  to  be  "an 
unprofitable  servant,"  who  had  "  done  no  more  than  it  was 
his  duty  to  do."     But  now,  when  I  look  back  on  the  past, 
and  call  up  in  review  the  numerous  occasions  when  I  might 
be  justly  charged,  by  him  whom  I  profess  to  serve,  with 
apathy,  with  slothfulness,  wuth  neglect ;  when  I  look  over 
the  field  in  which  I  have  been  so  long  labouring,  and  see  so 
little  really  accomplished  for  the  glory  of  Christ  and  the  sal- 
vation of  the  souls  committed  to  my  trust,  I  find,  you  may 
well  conceive,  much  greater  cause  for  the  deepest  humility 
and  sorrow  and  prostration  of  spirit,  than  for  any  thing  like 
exultation  and   glorying.      No,   brethren.   Clod  forbid  that 
I  should  seek  to  magnify  my  weak,  my  exceedingly  im- 
perfect  services   in   the   Redeemer's   cause   among  you. — 
My  sole  reason  for  this  slight  recapitulation,  is,  that  thus 
recalling  to  your  minds  some  of  the  truths  you  have  been 
taught,  I  may  peradventure,  lead  you  to  bring  yourselves 
into  judgment,  and  to  decide  how  far  you  have  discharg- 
ed your  duty,  in  receiving  the  truth  into  an  honest  and 
good  heart,  and  bringing  forth  fruit  to  the  honour  and  glory 
of  God — how  far  you  have  been  "  doers  of  the  word,  and  not 
hearers  only."     And  happy  will  it  be,  brethren,  both  for 
you  and  for  me,  if  the  result  of  such  retrospect  and  self-exami- 
nation, shall  be  deep  contrition  for  our  past  remissnesses  and 
unprofitableness,  and  a-  greater  degree  of  earnestness,  a  more 
hearty  and  thorough  engagedness  in  the  great  work,  which, 
as  Christians,  we  all  have  to  do. 

Having  thus  briefly  called  your  attention  to  the  past,  I 
would  now  direct  it  to  the  future.  As  this  day  terminates 
our  connexion  as  Pastor  and  flock,  as  this  is  my  last  address 
to  you  in  that  endearing  relation,  it  seems  to  me  not  unfit,  it 
seems  exceedingly  appropriate,  that  I  should  address  you  in 
the  language  of  the  Apostle — "  Finally,  Brethren,  farewell. 
Be  perfect,  be  of  good  comfort,  be  of  one  mind,  live  in  peace ; 
and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  wj>th  you." 


10 

Permit  me  then  to  explain,  to  enlarge  upon,  and  to  apply^ 
this  farewell  advice  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Corinthians,  asvij/ 
parting  counsel  to  you.  And  should  you  receive  it  in  the 
same  spirit  of  sincerity  and  affection  in  which  it  is  offered,  I 
cannot  but  cherish  the  hope  that  it  will  not  have  been  ten- 
dered in  vain,  but  will  prove  to  you  a  word  fitly  spoken  and 
in  season — yea,  even  a  "savour  of  life  unto  life"  to  your  souls. 

The  first  part  of  the  Apostle's  exhortation  is  "  Be  perfect." 
This,  taken  literally  according  to  the  translation,  means,  "g© 
on  unto  perfection — come  not  to  a  stand  in  your  Christian 
profession — be  not  content  with  moderate  attainments,  but 
aim  at  the  full  completion  of  the  Christian  character — labour 
after  perfection  in  holiness,  perfection  in  knowledge  ;  cherish 
every  grace  and  every  virtue  unto  maturity ;  and  cease  not 
your  exertions  till  ready  to  be  crowned  with  the  cheering 
sentence  in  a  better  world,  "well  done  good  and  faithful  ser- 
vant, enter  thou  into  the  jo)?^  of  thy  Lord/' 

This,  certainl)',  is  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  whether  it 
be  inculcated  in  this  particular  place  or  not ;  and  I  may  well 
be  excused,  if  I  embrace  the  occasion,  briefly  to  apply  it. — 
Some  people  seem  to  think  they  have  done  enough  in  the 
way  of  religion,  and  for  their  own  souls,  when  they  have 
summoned  up  sufiicient  resolution  to  make  a  public  profes- 
sion of  the  faith  of  the  Gospel — and  that  after  this,  provided 
they  are  not  positively  and  flagrantly  vicious,  they  are  very 
good  Christians  and  have  but  little  more  to  do.  But,  breth- 
ren, let  it  not  be  so  with  you.  Remember  that  your  public 
profession  of  Christianity  in  the  sacraments  and  ordinances  of 
the  Church,  was  but  the  commencement  of  a  work,  which 
you  then  covenanted  to  carry  on,  diligently  and  without  in- 
termission— the  beginning  of  a  icarfure  with  the  great  ene- 
mies of  your  salvation,  "  the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  Devil," 
in  which  you  solemnly  pledged  yourselves  to  "fight  man- 
fully" as  the  "  faithful  Soldiers"  of  Jesus  Christ,  even  "  unto 
the  end  of  your  lives.^'' 


11 

You  have  been  taught  that  the  Christian  life  is  progres- 
sive (even  like  the  morning  light  which  shines  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  day) — that  you  are  to  ^' grow  in  grace 
and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ" 
— and  that  you  must  be  always  pressing  forward  "  towards 
the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,"  or  you  can  never  hope  to  attain  unto  "  the  end  of 
your  faith,"  "  the  salvation  of  your  souls."  Be  not  satisfied, 
then,  with  a  loiv  standard  in  your  religion — think  it  not 
enough,  that  you  are  outwardly  observant  of  the  Lord's  day, 
constant  in  your  attendance  on  public  worship,  exact  in  your 
private  devotions,  scrupulous  in  the  daily  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  moral  in  your  life  and  conversation  in  the 
world  ;  but  strive  also,  after  holiness  of  heart  and  life.  Aim 
to  be  truly  converted  to  God,  and  thoroughly  imbued  with 
the  spirit  of  his  Son's  Gospel.  To  this  end  pray,  continu- 
ally, to  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  "  that 
he  would  grant  you  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  his 
spirit  in  the  inner  man;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your 
hearts  by  faith  ;  that  ye  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  love^ 
may  be  able  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth 
knowledge,"  and  thus  "be  filled  with  all  the  fulness  ofGod.^* 

The  meaning  of  the  expression,  however,  in  the  original, 
here  rendered  "  Be  perfect,"  is  put  together  again  or  restore 
what  was  before  deranged  or  out  of  joint.  And  if  we  sup- 
pose the  Apostle  to  have  had  reference  in  his  advice  here,  to 
those  divisions  and  contentions  which  had  formerly  prevailed 
among  the  Corinthians,  it  might  with  much  propriety  be 
translated,  be  reunited,  or  be  reconciled  again.  "  The  Apos- 
tle's meaning,"  says  one  of  the  commentators,  "is,  that  where- 
as the  members  of  the  Church  were  all,  as  it  were,  dislo- 
cated or  out  of  joint,  the}''  should  be  joined  together  again 
in  love ;  and  they  should  endeavour  to  make  perfect,  what 
was  amiss  among  them,  either  in  faith  or  manners."  And, 
in  this  sense  also,  I  may  be  permitted  to  apply  the  exhorts- 


12 

tion  to  ^0?;,  brethren.     Whatever  differences  of  opinion  may 
have  existed  among  you  hitherto,  suffer  them  to  continue  no 
Jonger.     Be  reunited  and  knit  together  in  the  bonds  of  Chris- 
tian friendship  and  brotherly  love.     Have  any,  through  dis- 
satisfaction with  some  of  their  brethren,  or  with  their  Min- 
ister, or  for  any  other  cause,  been  prompted  to   withdraw 
from  the  communion  of  the  Church  or  from  the  common 
Avorship  of  the  Sanctuary  ?     Or,  are  there  any  unholy,  un- 
friendly feelings  between  different  members  of  the  congre- 
gation, which  prevent  the  mutual  interchange  of  social  inter- 
course and  good  offices,  or  that  union  of  counsel,  influence 
and  support,  so  necessary  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Church  ? 
0,  my  brethren,  he  united  again — he  perfectly  joined  to- 
gether i?i  love.     Let  not  the  welfare  of  your  own  souls,  the 
interests  of  religion  at  large,  or  the   advancement  of  the 
Church  of  your  affections,  he  hindered  by  private  views,  by 
party  prejudices,  or  by  personal  dislikes.     Especially,  now, 
when  you  have  to  provide  a  successor  to  him  who  is  about  to 
leave  you,  let  all  dissentions  cease  ;  and  let  the  only  emula- 
tion rmong  you  be,  who  shall  show  most  attachment  to  the 
cause  of  Christ,  vyho  shall  be  most  active  in  promoting  the 
peace  and  unity  and  prosperity  of  his  Church.     Be  jjerfect; 
grow  in  grace — increase  in  holiness — be  completely  united, 
and  steadfastly  maintain  "the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond 
of  peace." 

The  next  part  of  the  Apostle's  advice  is,  "Be  of  good 
comfort;"  that  is,  be  not  cast  down,  but  take  courage  and 
put  your  trust  in  the  Lord.  This  might  have  been  intended 
to  apply  to  such  of  the  Christian  brethren  as  had  been  over- 
whslmed  with  sorrow,  produced  by  the  severity  of  the  Apos- 
tle's reproof  in  his  former  epistle.  Finding  them  so  tender 
of  conscience,  so  easily  affected  by  his  rebukes,  and  so  deep- 
ly penitent  for  their  faults,  he  \tas  probably  anxious  to  raise 
them  up  from  their  despondency,  and  restore  them  again  to 
cheerfulness  and  peace  of  mind.     "  Be  ^lot  disheartened,"  he 


1^ 

would  seem  lo  say,  "you  are  sensible  of  your  faults  and  sorry 
for  them — you  have  renounced  your  errors  and  commenced 
a  new  course  of  action — "  be  of  good  comfort,"  then — with 
humility  and  penitence  cast  yourselves  at  the  foot  of  the 
Cross,  and  your  sins  and  iniquities  shall  be  remembered  no 
more." 

In  the  same  language  would  I  address  such  of  you,  my 
brethren,  as  may  be  cast  down  by  a  sorrowful  sense  of  past 
transgressions — look  upon  the  Cross  of  Jesus  Christ — see 
what  he  has  done  and  suffered  in  order  to  take  away  your 
sins,  and  be  not  prevented  from  going  to  him,  either  by  the 
number  or  the  aggravation  of  your  offences.  But,  be  of  good 
comfort,  arise  and  seek  confidently,  the  pardon  which  he  has 
died  to  procure  you. 

In  like  manner,  should  you  be  called  to  struggle  with  the 
trials  and  distresses  incident  to  human  life — should  disap- 
pointment and  sorrow  overtake  you — should  the  waves  of 
affliction  and  mourning  break  over  your  heads — should  your 
pathway  be  beset  with  briars  and  thorns,  and  should  the  wide 
bosom  of  the  world  offer  to  your  anxious  eye  nought  but  the 
prospect  of  a  barren  and  trackless  wilderness — still  I  would 
exhort  you  to  "  be  of  good  comfort" — when  trouble  is  near 
the  Lord  is  not  afar  off=r-cast  your  burden  therefore,  cast  all 
your  cares  and  sorrows  on  him,  and  he  shall  sustain  you. — 
Put  your  trust  in  him,  and  you  shall  be  supported — Be  strong 
in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  his  might,  and  he  will  not 
suffer  your  feet  to  be  moved. 

And  so,  are  there  any  of  you  sorrowful  at  parting  with 
your  Minister,  to  them  also  would  I  apply  the  Apostle's 
words,  "Be  of  good  comfort,"  This  separation,  though  pain- 
ful, is  but  for  a  time — we  shall  meet  again — rif  not  here  in 
this  world  of  trial,  yet  in  that  blessed  world  above,  we  may 
hope  to  meet,  where  there  shall  be  no  more  separation — no 
more  sorrovi^  nor  crying ;  but  where  all  tears  shall  be  wiped 
h'ortx  our  eyes.    "  Be  of  good  comfort,"  beloved — though  scp-. 


14 

arated  in  person,  wc  shall  be  united  in  heart  and  affection — 
iinited  in  one  common  hope — united  in  prayer  to  the  one 
God  and  Father  of  us  all — united  in  pressing  onward  in  the 
same  narrow  path,  towards  the  same  blessed  mansion,  which 
our  common  Lord  and  Master  and  only  Saviour  has  gone  to 
prepare  for  us. 

The  next  advice  of  the  Apostle  is  "  Be  of  one  mind,"  or 
as  the  original  may,  more  literally,  be  rendered,  think  or 
mind  the  same  thing.  This,  of  course,  is  not  to  be  so  un- 
derstood, as  if  the  Apostle  meant  to  enjoin  a  universal 
agreement  in  matters  of  mere  opinion.  There  are  many 
things  about  which  men  may  lawfully  differ  in  sentiment : 
indeed,  they  are  so  variously  constituted  by  nature,  that  uni- 
versal accordance  in  opinion  must  be  regarded  as  nearly 
impracticable.  But  the  advice  is  given  to  Christians,  and 
has  reference,  mainly,  if  not  solely,  to  those  doctrines  and 
principles,  by  which  they  are  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
restof  the  world  around  them.  In  /Ae^e  it  must  be  highly  im- 
portant that  they  be  of  one  mind — a  difference  here,  must 
necessarily  involve  consequences  of  the  most  disastrous  kind. 
Of  this,  the  Corinthians  derived  abundant  proof  from  their 
own  experience ;  when,  according  to  the  Apostle,  there  ex- 
isted envying  and  strife  and  divisions  among  them.  Their 
want  of  consent  in  doctrine — of  oneness  of  mind  in  the  du- 
ties of  their  Christian  calling — had  opened  the  door  to  many 
excesses,  introduced  confusion  into  their  counsels,  and  well 
nigh  totally  destroyed  their  existence  as  a  Church. 

And  such  is  the  manifest  tendency  of  a  ivant  of  union  in 
sentiment,  among  Christians  at  the  present  day.  Well, 
therefore,  may  I,  brethren,  on  taking  leave  of  you  as  your 
Minister, exhort  you,  with  the  Apostle,  to  "  be  o{ one  mind.-^ 
And  this  I  would  press  upon  you,  as  essentially  necessary  to 
your  present  well-being,  and  to  your  future  prosperity  as  a 
Church.  ''  Be  of  one  mind,"  in  regard  (o  the  great  doctrines 
of  the  Bible,  as  set  forth  and  explained  in  the  Liturgy,  offices 


15 

and  articles  ol  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Suffer  no  one 
to  unsettle  your  faith  in  those  doctrines,  or  to  lower  your 
estimate  of  their  importance.  Give  no  place  to  that  sugges- 
tion of  the  Devil,  that  articles  of  belief  are  of  no  value,  and 
that  you  may  be  sound  Churchmen  and  good  Christians  with- 
out troubling  yourselves  about  doctrines  and  creeds.  But 
hold  fast  your  profession  as  Christians  and  as  Churchmen, 
without  wavering,  and  earnestly  "contend  for  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints." 

"  Be  of  one  mind,"  also,  in  respect  to  the  settlement  and 
the  treatment  of  your  next  Minister.  In  this  matter,  it  is 
highly  important  that  you  should  think  or  at  least  speak, 
the  same  thing.  Without  unanimity  here,  all  human  efforts- 
to  advance  the  prosperity  of  your  Zion,  must  prove  unavail- 
ing— and  though  you  may  have  a  Minister,  yet  his  situation 
will  be  uncomfortable,  and  his  prospect  for  usefulness  among 
you,  almost  hopeless.  Should  you,  therefore,  be  so  fortu- 
nate as  to  obtain  a  Pastor  willing  to  cast  in  his  lot  among, 
you,  who,  possessing  useful,  if  not  showy  talents,  is  sound  in 
principle  as  a  Churchman,  evangelical  in  doctrine,  holy  in 
life,  zealous  and  in  earnest  in  the  cause  of  Christ  and  the  sal- 
vation of  immortal  souls ;  0,  let  no  considerations  merely  per- 
sonal, no  private  views,  no  capricious  preferences  of  another, 
no  party  prejudices,  prevent  your  being  heartily  united  in 
contributing  to  his  support  and  comfort,  in  strengthening, 
his  hands  and  encouraging  his  heart,  and  in  convincing  him, 
that,  whatever  differences  there  may  be  in  tnere  opinion,  be- 
tween you  and  him,  you  are  determined  that,  at  least  in 
practice,  you  and  he,  will  be  of  "one  heart  and  one  sout.'^ 

Above  all,  brethren,  be  of  one  mind  in  regard  to  the  great 
end  of  your  Christian  calling.  In  this  respect,  it  is  of  infinite 
moment  that  you  should  all  think  the  same  thiiig,  that  you 
should  fix  your  minds  and  hearts  upon  the  same  object,  that 
you  should  agree  to  travel  the  same  road.  Let  the  one  thing 
needful,  the  religion  of  the  Gospel,  the  means  of  salvatio^n-y 


16 

be  that  in  which  you  all  agree,  the  object  of  all  your  exer- 
tions, the  centre  of  all  your  hopes.  In  this  let  us  all  be 
united — tlds^  let  us  all  seek  after,  at  all  times,  with  one 
heart  and  one  soul,  so  that  when  called  to  separate  from 
one  another  in  this  world,  as  we  must  all  sooner  or  later  cer- 
tainly look  for,  we  may  be  comforted  with  the  blessed  as- 
surance, that  we  shall  meet  again,  in  the  world  to  come, 
around  the  throne  of  God. 

The  last  particular  of  the  Apostle's  farewell  advice  is,  "live 
in  peace."  This  is  an  exhortation  always  needful  in  this 
world  of  tumult  and  strife,  and  well  worthy  of  being  heeded 
by  all  classes  of  men.  But  it  is  specially  important  that  it 
be  observed  by  them  who  are  members  of  the  household  of 
Him,  who  is  emphatically  styled  the  Prince  of  Peace,  and 
among  them,  if  any  where,  we  have  a  right  to  look  for  peace- 
It  was  the  parting  legacy  bestowed  by  our  "blessed  Lord 
upon  his  Church,  a  little  before  his  death,  "  Peace  I  leave 
with  you,  my  peace  I  give  unto  you."  And  it  is  only  so 
far  as  this  precious  legacy  is  preserved  among  Christians  at 
the  present,  that  they  truly  deserve  the  appellation  of  disci- 
ples of  Christ.  If  then,  brethren,  you  would  maintain  the 
honour  of  the  Christian  name,  and  prove  your  claim  to  be 
counted  followers  of  Jesus,  "  live  in  peace." 

Be  at  peace  among  yourselves.  Causes  of  offence  will 
arise  among  you.  Events  will  be  perpetually  occurring,  cal- 
culated to  try  your  patience,  to  irritate  your  temper,  to  pro- 
voke, perhaps,  your  indignation.  But  these  must  all  be  met 
by  the  exercise  of  the  Christian  virtues  of  forbearance,  meek- 
ness, humility,  gentleness  and  an  affectionate,  conciliatory 
disposition.  Brethren  of  the  same  family  must  be  mutually 
yielding,  compliant  and  forgiving.  "The  servants  of  the 
Lord  must  not  strive;  but  be  gentle  unto  all,  patient,  in 
meekness  instructing  all  that  oppose  themselves,"  "  forbear- 
ing one  another  in  love;  endeavouring  to  Icee])  the  unitv  of 
the  .-spirit  in  tiie  bond  of  peace." 


"  Live  in  peace,"  also  with  others,  those  who  arc  not  of 
the  household  of  faith — even  those  who  are  not  of  the  same 
mind  with  you,  in  religious  things,  according  to  that  of  the 
Apostle — "  if  it  be  possible  as  much  as  lieth  in  you  live  peace- 
ably with  all  men."  Cultivate  a  friendly  disposition  to- 
wards them — seek  all  opportunities  of  doing  them  good — be 
not  too  ready  to  believe  reports  of  their  harsh  expressions  or 
evil  designs  towards  you — and  especially  return  not  evil  for 
evil,  or  railing  for  railing — but  contrariwise,  blessing. — 
And  ever  remember  that  the  true  Christian  spirit  prompts 
its  possessor  to  forgive  an  injury,  so  soon  as  it  is  committed' 
— so  do,  and  you  will  "  live  in  peace." 

But  be  careful  above  all  things  that  you  "live  at  peace" 
with  God.  This,  brethren,  is  your  grand  concern.  This 
is  the  point  to  which  the  whole  circle  of  Christian  virtues 
tend  as  to  their  centre.  This  is  the  sum  of  all  Christian  per- 
fection— the  goal  to  which  all  your  efforts  must  be  directed. 
And  unless  you  attain  to  this,  however  you  may  live,  you 
can  neither  die  in  peace,  nor  dwell  with  peace  hereafter. — 
0,  then,  labour  earnestly  for  reconciliation  and  peace  with 
God;  be  faithful  in  the  examination  of  yourselves,  and  im- 
portunate in  your  application  to  the  great  mediator  of  peace 
between  God  and  man ;  be  vigilant  in  keeping  your  hearts 
and  ruling  your  lives.  In  fine — be  perfect;  be  of  good  com- 
fort; be  of  one  mind;  live  in  peace;  and  the  God  of  love 
and  peace  shall  be  with  you.  Yes,  brethren,  God  shall  be 
with  you — he  hath  so  declared  by  his  holy  Apostle,  and  he 
will  keep  his  word.  Be  you  but  sincere  and  honest  in  your 
profession  of  attachment  to  his  service — be  but  obedient  and 
faithful,  and  you  shall  not  be  left  destitute — God  will  come 
unto  you  and  dwell  with  you  in  love  and  in  peace.  Be  you 
of  one  mind  and  love  one  another,  and  the  love  of  God  shall 
fill  your  hearts.  Be  you  perfect  and  live  in  peace,  and  the 
peace  of  God  shall  always  attend  you. 

The  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  you,  to  bless  and 


IS 

prosper  his  Church.  He  will  not  suffer  his  vineyard  to  lan- 
guish, nor  give  his  heritage  to  reproach.  He  will  be  a  wall 
of  defence  to  his  people  who  trust  in.  and  are  obedient  to  his 
>vjll,  and  will  not  suffer  the  foot  of  pride  to  come  near  to  hurt 
ihefn,  nor  the  hand  of  the  ungodly  to  cast  them  down — By 
his  gracious  presence,  he  will  comfort  them  in  their  sorrow, 
and  cheer  them  in  the  darkest  hour  of  their  desolation — He 
will  make  their  "  peace  to  be  as  a  river,  and  their  righteous- 
ness as  the  waves  of  the  sea." 

And  if  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  thus  be  with  you, 
dear  brethren,  then  be  not  dismayed  at  the  approach  of  evil 
— be  not  cast  down  by  the  appearance  of  trouble ;  but  take 
courage  and  trust  in  him.  What  he  doeth  unto  you  by  his 
trial*!,  ye  know  not  now,  but  ye  shall  know  hereafter.  Hope 
in  God,  and  you  shall  yet  praise  Him — seek  a  refuge  in  "the 
secret  place  of  the  most  High,"  and  you  shall  stcxircly  ^^  abide 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty." 

And  now,  beloved  brethren,  and  fiiiend?,  a  few  Vtords 
more,  and  my  message  to  you  is  e.nded.  The  ministry  which 
I  have  so  long  exercised  among  you,  is  this  day  brought  to  a 
close.  For  eleven  years,  nearly  one  sixth  part  of  the  lifp  of 
man,  I  have  been  your  Minister,  the  appointed  watchman  for 
your  souls — and  during  this  long  period,  it  is  not  improba^ 
ble,  that  I  may  sometimes  have  erred,  both  in  doctrine  and 
in  practice.  But  if  there  has  been  any  thing  in  the  instruc- 
tions which  I  have  given  you,  inconsistent  with  the  truth 
and  the  spirit  of  Christ's  Gospel ;  if  ever  a  word  has  fallen 
from  my  lips  censorious  or  uncharitable  ;  if  any  part  of  mj- 
conduct  has  been  at  variance  with  the  principles  of  the  reli- 
gion which  I  profess;  and  if,  in  any  of  these  respects,  I  have 
been  a  stumbling  block  and  a  rock  of  offence,  or  have  need- 
lessly give  pain  to  a  single  soul  among  you,  as  I  most  hum- 
bly pray  for  the  pardoning  mercy  of  God,  so  also,  I  here  in 
.sincerity  crave  your  lbrgivenc:<s.  And  as  I  would  hope  for 
this  mercy  myself,  so  do  I  most  frecl}'  extend  it  to  others. — 


19 

If  there  is  a  single  person  among  you,  whose  enmity  I  have 
incurred,  (I  do  not  believe  there  is  one  in  this  whole  aom- 
munity) — if  any  of  you  have  ever  done,  attempted,  or  thought 
to  do  me  evil,  in  word  or  deed,  I  do  most  heartily  forgive 
him — as  well  as,  most  sincerely  declare,  that  there  dwells 
not  the  individual  in  this  community  towards  whom  I  enter- 
tain any  harsher  feelings  than  those  of  kindness  and  good  will- 
Most  sincerely,  then,  can  I  say  to  you  all,  Farewell. — 
And  I  heartily  pray  to  God  that  you  may,  indeed,  fare  well, 
in  all  things — in  your  worldly  business,  in  your  family  rela- 
tions, in  your  religious  interests — in  life — in  the  hour  of 
death,  and  throughout  all  eternity. 

And  now,  brethren,  let  us  draw  near  to  the  tabic  of  our 
common  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  while  there,  celebrating  his 
great  sacrifice  of  himself  for  our  sins,  let  us  pray  earnestly 
for  ourselves,  and  for  one  another,  that  we  may  al!  be  perfect, 
be  of  good  comfort,  be  of  one  mind,  and  live  in  peace— and 
that  the  God  of  love  and  peace  nny  be  with  us  both  no'^v 
and  forevermore  ! 


# 


^Japf 


w   • 


I 


USEFUL  LIFE 


AND 


A  PEACEFUL  DEATH: 


A  DISCOURSE 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 


LEGISLATURE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 


DECEMBER    18,    1842. 


BY  REV    E.  L    MAGOON, 

PASTOR    OF    THE    SECOND    BAPTIST    CHURCH, 
RICHMOND,    VA. 


RICHMOND; 

PRINTED    BY    H.    K.    ELLYSON, 

1843. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


The  author  of  this  pamphlet  visited  Raleigh,  for  the  purpose 
of  attending  a  series  of  religious  meetings.  On  the  night  of  his 
arrival,  he  was  present  at  the  organization  of  an  Executive,  Legis- 
lative and  Judiciary  Temperance  Society,  and,  after  an  address  on 
the  occasion,  vvras  desired  to  preach  before  the  Legislature  on  the 
following  Sabbath  night.  The  largest  church  was  procured,  a 
very  full  audience  of  every  rank  were  present,  and  the  following- 
discourse  was  submitted. 

A  request  was  soon  after  received,  signed  by  twenty-one  Sena- 
tors and  Members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  "  in  behalf  of  them- 
selves and  their  associates,"  desiring  a  copy  for  publication. 
This  request  is  reluctantly  complied  with,  urged  chiefly  by  the 
desire  that  the  publication  may  prove  beneficial  to  citizens  renown- 
ed for  a  tolerant  spirit. 

As  early  as  1672,  George  Fox,  when  he  had  crossed  "the 
great  bogs,  laying  abroad  anights  in  the  woods  by  a  fire,"  and 
reached  the  groves  of  Albermarle,  "  met  with  a  tender  people  " 
who  received  "  the  authority  of  truth  ;  "  and  when  he  had  "  opened 
many  things  concerning  the  light  and  spirit  of  God  that  is  in 
every  one, "  he  was  still  "  received  lovingly.  "  From  the  house 
of  the  Governor,  who  "heard  him  meekly,"  he  went  to  the  resi- 
dence of  "  Joseph  Scot,  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  country 
where  he  had  a  sound  and  precious  meeting  with  all  conditions  of 
people ; "  and  when  he  returned  to  Virginia,  he  declared  that  ho 
found  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  "  generally  tender  and  open, " 
and  that  he  had  made  among  them  "  a  little  entrance  for  truth.  " 

The  characteristics  which  this  envoy  of  humanity  found  in  that 
chivalrous  State  yet  remain.  The  kindness  which  the  unworthy 
author  received  Avill  be  gratefully  remembered,  and  in  return  he 
prays  that  every  soul  on  her  domain  may  become  enlightened, 
sanctified  and  saved,  E,  L.  M. 


DISCOURSE. 


Acts  xiii  :  36. — For  David,  after  he  had  served  his  own 
^'eneralio/t  hy  the  will  of  God^  fell  on  sleep. 

The  Apostle  uttered  these  words  in  his  argument  at  Antioch. 
His  immediate  object  was,  to  prove  that  Jesus  was  the  true  Mesi- 
ah  "  whom  God  raised  from  the  dead. "  In  this  allusion  to  the 
person  of  David,  we  have  a  compendious  description  of  a  good 
character  and  a  useful  man. 

The  occasion  which  has  called  us  together,  will,  perhaps,  re- 
^luire  and  justify  a  slig'ht  departure  from  the  usual  style  of  ser- 
monizing ;  but  while  we  proceed  to  discuss  some  of  the  great 
principles  which  relate  to  the  general  good,  most  earnestly  is  it 
desired  that  none  of  you  will  forget  the  dread  responsibilities  con- 
nected with  your  personal  relation  to  Almighty  God.  In  this 
service  we  shall  consider  the  subject  of  A  Useful  Life  and  a 
Peaceful  Death. 

It  is  said  of  the  ancient  Monarch  of  Israel  that  "  He  served  his 
own  generation  by  the  will  of  God.  "  This  will  suggest  several 
particulars. 

In  the  first  place^  he  took  his  position  in  society  as  Providence 
directed,  and  recognized  this  life  as  a  state  of  active  service.  He 
felt  a  tie  linking  him  to  his  brother  man,  to  all  men,  and  while  he 
served  them  beneficently,  he  felt  most  deeply  that  his  highest 
relation  was  a  divine  one,  and  because  he  was  truly  devout,  his 
patriotism  was  the  inspiration  of  goodness.  He  was  greatly  sincere 
in  his  uncommon  greatness  ;  though  imperfect  in  his  life,  he  was 
perfect  in  his  purposes,  and  hence  he  was  by  infalible  wisdom 
declared  to  be  "a  man  after  God's  own  heart.  "  His  repentance 
was  as  profound  as  his  faults  were  obvious.  He  was  "zealous  for 
the  Lord,  "  and  desired  the  prolongation  of  earthly  existence  only 
that  he  might  be  more  useful.  In  the  seventh  chapter  of  Acts  it 
is  said  that  "  David  found  favor  before  God,  and  desired  to  find  a 
tabernacle  for  the  God  of  Jacob. "  Perseverance,  that  great  ele- 
ment of  usefulness,  entered  into  his  composition.  Having  served 
the  world  through  a  long  life  in  the  highest  station,  he  Inade  his 
death-bed  a  throne  of  perpetual  admonition,  from  which  he  taught 
his  son  to  "show  himself  a  man,"  aud  died  prajdng  that  his  iuflu- 


ence  might  be  augmented  through  the  agency  of  worthy  successors. 

In  the  second  place,  this  ancient  servant  of  God  and  humanity 
served  his  generation.  By  this  we  arc  to  understand  that  he. 
served  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  He  Avent  out  of  himself,  rose 
above  the  narrow  and  contemptible  precincts  of  sectional  preju- 
dice and  took  generous  and  comprehensive  views.  It  is  not 
forgotten  that  public  men  are  here, — men  who  rule  this  common- 
wealth and  legislate  for  this  great  people, — men  older,  wiser,  and 
better  every  Avay  than  the  speaker.  We  come  not  here  intention- 
ally to  degrade  the  pulpit  so  low  as  to  make  it  the  desecrated  scene 
of  political  fulminations,  nor  would  we  willingly  deserve  contempt 
by  presuming  to  dictate  to  your  superior  sense.  But  we  meet  as 
citizens  of  a  common  country,  christians  of  a  common  faith,  and 
descendants  of  a  race  who  never  deemed  it  irrelevant  to  inquire 
earnestly  into  the  process  by  which  successive  generations  have 
been  served  and  by  which  coming  ages  should  be  blessed.  How 
will  the  Christian  Patriot  serve  his  age? 

First  of  all  he  must  understand  it.  He  must  be  capable  of 
imbibing  its  spirit  before  he  can  ennoble  it.  The  wind  must  not 
only  be  strong,  but  it  must  come  in  contact  with  the  sea  before  the 
billows  roll  and  are  purified  by  the  motion.  As  well  might  we 
expect,  that  of  itself  "the  spicy  breath  of  Araby"  would  cause 
the  stormy  Atlantic  to  swell  and  dash  against  the  adverse  shore 
as  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people  will  be  moved  and  elevated, 
and  constantly  impelled  towards  one  great  point  by  the  conflicting 
whims  of  those  whom  luxury  has  emasculated  of  strength,  and 
ignorance  has  incapacitated  for  counsel. 

Moreover,  one  will  begin  to  understand  his  age  just  as  soon  as 
he  has  the  power  oi  feeling  its  claims.  Cold  theorizers  and  frigid 
dogmatics  are  obsolete  in  our  day.  Men  of  acute  sympathy  are 
our  men  of  power,  and  men  who  have  had  experience  among  the 
people,  are  the  leaders  who  have  won  wisdom  in  the  best  school, 
and  with  that  prophetical  sagacity  which  is  quickened  by  the  throb- 
ings  of  the  popular  pulse  can  intelligently  guide  human  destinies 
to  the  noblest  goal.  What  is  the  predominant  character  of  our 
age?  Action!  Who  are  fitted  to  serve  it?  Men  who  are  active, 
who  are  practical,  and  who  in  every  vocation  are  working  men. 
The  age  of  metaphysical  disquisition  is  past,  and  the  time  has 
come  when  if  one  would  be  useful  he  must  be  active  in  acquiring 
wisdom  and  equally  mdustrious  in  embodying  all  he  acquires  in 
magnanimous  acts  which  are  palpable  to  the  general  feelings  and 
conducive  to  universal  good.  Hcaltliy  souls  in  sound  bodies,  men 
of  solid  qualities  and  indomitable  application  are  dt mandcd  now. 
This  age  though  distinct  is  not  seperate  from  those  that  have  pre- 
ceded. We  are  bound  to  past  generations,  even  to  tlie  most  remote, 
by  a  sublime  connection.  Our  age  i.'^  the  cnniulatf^d  and  com- 
pressed result  of  all  antiquity,  as  the  majestic  river  widening  to 
the  sea,  is  the  rcsuU  of  every  tributary,  however  obscure,  and  of 


every  fountain,  however  small.  Hence  he  w^ho  would  mould  and 
guide  the  elements  of  the  future  should  not  take  his  position  as  a 
pilot  in  the  eddying  current  of  opinions  until  he  has  explored  the 
past  and  caught  an  inspiration  commensurate  with  the  magnitude 
of  the  world's  increasing  claims.  Our  proper  destination  is  into 
purer  and  deeper  waters;  but  he  who  is  ignorant  of  what  has  been 
will  be  most  indifferent  to  what  needs  be,  and  will  be  as  likely  to 
navigate  his  craft  in  one  direction  as  another. 

There  are  two  Avays  by  which  we  obtain  the  power  of  serving 
our  generation.  The  first  lies  in  generous  and  comprehensive 
self-culture.  Human  nature  is  identical  in  its  constitution  and  in 
its  susceptibility  to  social  influence.  We  thrill  others  most  when 
our  own  soul  is  best  toned.  But  the  elements  of  public  thought 
are  diversified,  temperaments  differ,  and  local  characteristics  con- 
flict. He  therefore  who  is  to  mingle  among  all  and  would  move 
each  must  possess  an  education  as  varied  as  the  multifarious  gra- 
dations of  the  surrounding  intellectual  world,  and  must  urge 
repugnant  demands  through  the  universal  avenue  of  love.  The 
giant  in  his  best  condition  can  move  no  farther  than  he  takes  hold. 
The  power  of  grasping  moral  powers  is  moral,  and  is  within  us. 
We  reach  the  soul  through  the  soul, — we  arouse  the  passions 
only  through  the  passions.  True  power  is  intellectual.  Its 
honor  and  reward  lies  in  the  capacity  of  uttering  the  bright  coin- 
age of  immortal  thought. 

Providence  has  appointed  our  existence  in  an  age  and  country 
most  favorable  for  the  illustration  of  this  point.  In  ruder  ages, 
physical  strength  obtained  mastership  in  life.  In  the  subsequent 
era  of  chivalry,  the  prowess  of  military  chieftains  monopolized 
the  brightest  smiles  and  the  highest  honors.  But  under  the  high- 
er civilization  of  modern  times,  beautiful  thought  is  the  favorite 
sovereign,  who  from  the  printed  page  or  speaking  lip  sways  with 
omnipotent  energy  a  sceptre  that  is  omnipresent.  Look  at  the 
regal  power  of  mind.  If  it  cannot  "  create  a  soul  under  the  ribs 
of  death, "  it  will  chisel  frosty  marble  into  the  lineaments  and 
gracefulness  of  more  than  kingly  majesty.  Disdaining  to  employ 
agents  weak  and  fragile  to  execute  its  purpose,  creative  mind  has 
produced  a  titan-progeny  whose  strength  is  greater  than  Briareas 
with  his  hundred  hands.  Vivified  with  a  soul  etherial  and  light- 
ning-winged, these  servants,  whose  toil  is  neither  uncompensated 
nor  unjust,  open  the  quarry  and  drive  the  loom ;  or  when  linked 
to  the  car  and  ship  they  unexhausted  go 

"  Tramp,  tramp  over  the  earth. 
Splash,  splash  across  the  sea.  " 

There  are  intellects  at  this  moment  extant  and  luxuriating  in 
the  solitudes  of  profound  meditation,  or  active  in  public  toil,  whose 


8 

conceptions,  Lng-  ^ince  dispatched  on  their  mission  of  conquest, 
are  rushing-  in  a  thousand  directions  with  iuHniti  iy  more  spfcd 
and  energy  than  the  Eagles  of  imperial  Kome.  As  the  lightning 
shineth  from  the  east  unto  the  west,  so  the  clear  broad  light  of 
sterling  thought,  glittering  through  "the  spacious  circuits  of  her 
musing,"  is  pouring  an  efjulgfnce  round  the  globe.  Not  the  fit- 
ful coruscations  of  vapid  mediocrity,  but  profound  and  glowing 
mind  is  the  universal  queen  whom  all  must  adore  or  serve. 
Republicans  though  we  are,  we  must  acknowledge  that  here  is  a 
sovereign  victorious  beyond  our  envy  or  our  hate. 

But  mental  strength  docs  not  lie  in  the  power  to  sit  still. 
Action,  action  energetic,  persevering  and  comprehensive,  is  the 
condition  of  deveiopiuent  and  progress.  Mind  must  have  mind  in 
masses  to  act  upon,  and  in  that  contact  there  is  an  exciting  power 
beyond  all  human  computation.  Napoleon  must  have  high  Alps 
to  overleap,  nations  for  his  conquest,  and  universal  empire  for  his 
dominion.  Nothing  less  than  a  whole  planet  will  answer  for 
Columbus  to  shape  his  course  upon  ;  and  such  mental  emperors 
as  Bowditch  and  Newton  require  immensity  thick-shown  with 
myriads  of  constellations  for  apparatus,  angels  for  fellow  students, 
and  all  eternity  to  unfold  the  latent  energies  of  the  human  mind. 

Why  even  here  in  this  doomed  earth,  where  storms  howl  and 
disease  destroys,  the  empires  that  rise,  and  the  institutions  that  rule, 
are  only  lengthened  shadows  of  individual  minds  walking  before 
the  sun  of  immortal  glory.  It  is  the  same  now  as  it  ever  has 
been,  the  thick  ranks  of  the  great  army  of  mankind  are  marching 
with  lock-step  over  the  field  of  time  to  great  conflicts  and  eternal 
rewards.  They  march  to  the  music  of  thought  regular  or  dis- 
tracting, and  he  who  plays  loudest  and  best  will  be  folloAvcd  by 
the  strongest  host. 

A  thought  put  into  action  is  infinitely  more  cflective  than 
exploding  cannon.  The  tones  of  true  eloquence  will  drown  all 
their  uproar,  counteract  the  force  of  their  destruction,  and  render 
the  emperor  of  all  the  Russias  utterly  impotent  before  the  splen- 
dors of  inspiring  truth.  The  crash  of  iron  hail  and  the  growlings 
of  "the  elogs  of  Avar"  are  intermittent,  but  the  salvos  of  mental 
artillery  are  perpetual. 

Our  power  to  serve  the  age  in  which  we  live  is  measured  by 
the  excellence  of  our  spiritual  cultivation.  God  has  indicated  our 
duty  in  the  wonderful  endowments  of  our  race.  He  has  made  it 
the  eternal  nature  of  the  soul  to  make  all  things  its  own;  and  it  is 
the  glorious  prerogative  of  a  virtuous  mind  to  make  all  excellrnce 
its  solace  and  its  food.  Is  a  diamond  beautiful  ? — mind  will  set  it 
on  fire  and  from  its  flame  educe  truth  more  sparkling  and  profita- 
ble than  the  perishing  gem.  Is  light  trnnspnrcut  ? — un'nd  lays 
hold  of  a  ray,  and  with  a  scalpel  mor(^  tthrrial  tiian  the  subject  it 
dissects,  spreads  before  the  rye  ol  admiration,  the  discriminated 
hues  which  in  diversified  combinations  tint  the  rose  and  form  the 


9 

ruiiibow,  beautify  tlic  earth  niid  uvluin  llie  lieavriis,  And  is  the 
deep  blue  vault  of  those  heavens  sublime  with  the  respleiidt  rit 
glories  of  majestic  worlds  circling-  there?— mind,  aye  the  mind  of 
man,  has  from  that  awful  dome  suspfiuled  its  balance-beam,  and 
calmly  Aveighed  vast  systems  of  worlds  in  the  even  scales.  Mind 
thrown  into  the  lowest  vale  of  nature,  an  intangible  and  immortal 
essence,  illumines  whatever  is  dark,  conquers  opposing  strength, 
and  with  pinions  swifter  than  the  lightning's  wing,  flies  an  angel- 
fiight,  foith  and  right  on  whithersoever  it  will. 

Again,  by  high  self-culture  v/e  reach  the  spirit  of  our  age  and 
move  it  by  the  power  of  principles.  He  who  deeply /ee/s  the  rid- 
dle of  the  world  is  in  a  good  way  to  unravel  it.  One  spark  may 
kindle  a  conflagration  which  shall  destroy  the  temples  of  liberty 
and  justice.  Such  is  the  fanatic  Y\^ho  hurls  his  torch  on  high  and 
vaunts  himself  as  a  philosopher,  when  he  is  only  a  madman. 
One  spark  of  hallowed  fire  may  set  rubbish  in  a  blaze,  from 
whose  flashy  and  blasting  heat  rich  products  may  flow,  as  Cor- 
inthian brass  was  first  formed  amid  the  cinders  of  a  voluptuous 
city.  One  little  word  embodying  a  nation's  spirit, — one  speech 
glowing  with  the  inspiration  of  the  age, — may  fall  on  combust- 
ibles which  oceans  cannot  quench.  Old  John  Adams,  when  a 
college  student,  chanced  to  be  in  Boston  and  heard  a  patriotic 
speech,  one  of  the  first  sparks  struck  by  the  Genius  of  American 
Liberty  from  his  majesty's  oppressive  throne.  That  seed  of  fire 
was  not  lost.  It  fell  in  the  already  glowing  heart  of  him  whom 
a  great  rival  frankly  termed  "  our  colossus  in  congressional 
debate. "  What  the  worth  and  power  of  the  principle  then 
broached  were  is  indicated  by  Mr.  Adams'  declaration,  "  I  say  in 
the  most  solemn  manner,  that  Mr.  Otis'  Oration  against  Writs  of 
Assistance  breathed  into  this  nation  the  breath  of  life. " 

Martin  Luther  found  a  bible  uncumbered  by  traditions,  and  read 
it  in  secret,  panting  after  truth  until  the  bright  vision  burst  upon 
his  enraptured  heart.  In  the  light  of  a  new  and  nobler  principle 
than  Avas  possessed  by  his  cotemporaries,  his  cell  became  more 
glorious  than  grandeur's  most  magnificent  saloon,  and  he  deeply 
felt  that  no  man  should  hide  what  God  designed  all  men  to  know. 
Inspired  by  holy  truth  he  could  but  inspire,  and  those  Teachings 
of  his  soul  went  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer,  until  he  had  kin- 
dled the  surrounding  atmostpht^re  into  a  canopy  of  magnificence, 
inspired  contiguous  minds  with  his  own  ardor,  and  left  the  world 
all  blazing  from  his  torch,  to  assume  hereafter  a  crown  compared 
to  which  the  laurels  of  selfish  heroes  are  v/eeds. 

And  yet  the  reformation  was  not  complete.  Latimer  and  Ridley- 
struck  for  a  still  nearer  approach  to  undoubted  right,  For  their 
fidelity  they  must  share  in  the  peril  and  glory  of  all  great 
advancements.  "Fear  not,  Master  Ridley,"  said  the  heroical 
Latimer,  as  both  in  chains  were  going  to  the  stake,  "  for  by  the 
blessing  of  God  wc  will  this  day  kindle  such  a  flame  as  shall 


01 

never  g-o  out !  "  No !  it  shall  not  go  out.  Each  new  principle 
discovf-red  and  proclaimod,  is  a  naw  and  imperishable  luminary 
added  to  the  moral  heavens. 

To  support  an  unjust  war,  Charles  I  of  England  taxed  his  sub- 
jects illegally  and  without  just  cause.  Hampden  resisted  the 
trifling  assessment  of  twenty  shillings  on  his  vast  landr'd  property, 
and  stood  up  the  mightiest  among  the  mighty  to  dcfmd  a  do^^^l- 
troddrn  principle  of  justice  and  ceased  not  until  he  had  brought 
from  the  dust  tho  cry  of  liberty,  and  rendered  $hip-money  in  all 
men's  ears  a  hated  word. 

There  is  another  and  still  more  striking  illustration  of  the  ser- 
vice rendered  to  one's  age  and  to  all  ages  by  the  discovery  and 
defence  of  profound  and  original  principles.  Sir  Edward  Coke, 
the  distinguished  lawyer, — for  it  was  fashionable  for  lawyers  to 
go  to  church  in  those  days, — one  day  discovered  a  lad  taking 
notes  during  divine  service.  Being  pleased  with  the  inodest 
worth  of  the  lad,  he  asked  his  parents  to  permit  him  to  educate 
their  emulative  son.  It  is  said  that  Coke  sent  him  to  Oxford. 
He  drank  from  the  fountains  of  knowledge,  and  in  those  draughts 
he  found 

"  The  sober  certainty  of  waking  bliss.  " 

As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks,  he  longed  for  the 
wisdom  that  rouses  the  might  A^'hich  so  often  and  so  long  slumbers 
in  a  peasant's  arm.  He  communed  with  the  past  and  with  his 
OAvn  startling  thoughts.  He  summoned  around  him  the  venerable 
sages  of  antiquity,  and  in  their  presence  made  a  feast  of  fat  things, 

"  A  perpetual  feast  of  nectar'd  sweets  where  no  crude  surfeit  reigns." 

At  the  fount  of  holiest  instruction  he  cleared  his  vision,  and 
from  the  mount  of  contemplation  breathed  in  worlds  to  Avhich  the 
heaven  of  heavens  is  but  a  veil.  But  his  soul  was  too  free  for  the 
peace  of  his  sycophantic  associates,  his  principles  Avere  too  philan- 
thropic for  the  selfishness  of  his  age,  the  doctrines  which  he 
scorned  to  disavow  were  too  noble  for  old  England,  and  he  sought 
an  asylum  among  the  icy  rocks  of  this  wilderness  world.    He  came 

"  To  plant  the  Tree  of  Life,  to  plant   fair  Freedom's  Tree.  " 

and  was  driven  from  thr-  socifty  of  white  men  through  wintry 
storms  and  savages  more  lenirnt  than  interested  factions,  to  plant 
the  first  free  colony  in  America.  'J'hat  boy  was  thr  founder  of 
Hhodr  Island,  that  man  was  the  patriot  who  stooped  his  annoint- 
( d  hrad  as  lo\v  as  death  for  universal  rights,  and  ever 

"   Fought  to  protect,  and  conquered  but  to  bless. '» 


4. 


II 

That  christian  was  Roger  Williams,  the  first  who  plrad  for 
liberty  of  conscience  hi  this  country  and  the  pioneer  of  religious 
liberty  for  the  world. 

Such  lovers  of  truth  and  justice  are  the  pillars  of  society  and 
the  benefactors  of  their  age.  They  expel  popular  fears,  steady 
popular  fickleness,  expand  narrow  prejudice,  and  sink  factious 
tempers  in  their  enlarged  wisdom  and  public  spirit. 

Such  service  is  neither  transient  nor  spasmodic.  Thoughts 
born  in  solitude  and  agony  most  frequently  convulse  or  console 
the  world.  In  the  lightning-gleam  of  intellect  which  in  the 
murky  gloom  of  his  indigence  and  neglect  created  in  the  mind  of 
Columbus  the  conclusion  that  the  earth  is  spherical,  and  that  the 
Indies  might  be  reached  by  sailing  due  west,  America  with  all  her 
vast  domain  inhabitants  and  history  was  discovered  !  But  we  have 
had  moral  explorers  who,  striking  out  a  new  and  successful  voy- 
age, have  returned  with  "rich  argosies"  of  inestimable  wealth, 
Fifty  years  ago  a  few  Baptist  preachers  assembled  in  a  small 
parlor  in  the  retired  town  of  Kittering,  Eng.  After  spending  a 
season  in  prayer  for  divine  direction,  they  resolved  to  form  an 
association  for  diffusing  religious  knowledge  in  the  heathen 
world,  and  from  their  own  scanty  means  they  contributed  thirteen 
pounds  sterling  as  alms  to  accompany  their  devotion.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  great  work  of  modern  missions.  The  germ 
has  grown  to  a  mighty  tree  overspreading  the  earth.  There  are 
now  fifteen  hundred  missionaries  in  the  field,  aided  by  five  thou- 
sand native  teachers.  These  are  laboring  around  twelve  hundred 
central  stations  and  fifty  printing  establishments.  One  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand  have  already  professed  conversion  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  and  two  hundred  thousand  more  are  daily  taught  wis- 
dom, human  and  divine,  in  the  missionary  schools.  William 
Carey  struck  the  first  blow  at  home  and  kindled  the  first  beacon 
light  on  the  shores  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness  abroad.  He  rose 
to  be  the  first  scholar  and  foremost  philanthropist  in  India.  He 
emulated  every  excellence  and  became  the  purest  among  the 
great,  the  greatest  among  the  pure.  The  government  which  first 
opposed  him  came  at  length  to  acknowledge  their  obligations  to 
true  religion,  and  on  the  10th  of  August.  1842,  a  great  concourse 
of  British  statesmen  and  native  patriots  m  Calcutta  resolved  to 
signify  their  gratitude  and  veneration  for  great  services  and 
exalted  worth,  by  ordering  the  form  of  Dr.  Carey  cut  in  mar- 
ble. But  neither  they  nor  the  angels  above  can  fully  estimate 
how  wisely  and  how  well  he  served  his  generation. 

Robert  kaikes,  the  industrious  and  benevolent  printer  of  Glou- 
cester, having  acquired  a  fortune,  set  about  subordinating  it  to  the 
benefit  of  his  age.  Happily  he  struck  upon  a  new  principle,  by 
gathering  the  vicious  and  ignorant  into  a  Sabbath  school.  A 
great  light  has  sprung  up  and  spread  from  that  heavenly  spark, 
and  millions  are  now  blessed  in  that  institytion  of  which,  since 


^  12 

God  liiinsL'lf  is  llie  Presidoii.  every  matured  chrlslian  should  be  a 
teacher,  and  the  whole  world  of  yoiilli  llie  aluiurii. 

Clarkson  out  of  Parlianitnt  and  Wilberforce  in  it,  willi  their 
tongue  and  pen,  like  How.ird  with  his  heart  and  hand,  served 
their  generation  hi  the  advocacy  of  justice  and  mercy,  and  won 
fame  and  glory  which  shall  be  luminous  and  immortal  when  the 
names  of  iheir  calumniators  shall  rot  in  the  caves  of  eternal  infa- 
my and  oblivion. 

Another  illustration,  the  strongest  and  most  striking  of  all,  Avill 
stand  prominent  in  the  hislory  of  this  eventful  age.  It  is  that  those 
six  inebriates  in  Baltimore,  when  drimk,  should  have  staggered 
upon  the  only  true  principle  of  sobriety, — a  principle  Avhich,  had 
it  been  acted  upon,  would  havfe  prevented  previous  dissoluteness 
and  which  is  hereafter  destined  to  rescue  the  abandoned  drunkard 
from  his  hell,  and  elevate  the  moderate  drinker  into  the  condition 
of  a  temperate  and  virtuous  man. 

The  influence  of  true  service  to  one's  age  goes  on  multiplying. 
Washington  and  his  compatriots  went  to  "  war  against  a  preamble," 
— -behind  a  small  but  unjust  requisition  they  detected  the  presence  of 
tyranny,  and  dragging  up  from  the  deep  well  of  truth  an  old  but 
tmdiscovered  antagonist  principle,  they  first  felt  its  worth,  authenti- 
cated its  justness,  and  then  went  to  the  struggle  of  death  in  hs 
defence.  What  are  the  results  ?  The  principle  has  survived  its 
first  patrons,  and  is  now  circling  the  globe.  From  us  to  the  south 
pole,  from  sea  to  sea,  almoste  every  foot  of  soil  is  disenthralled 
from  European  rule,  the  peasants  of  the  vales  and  hardy  moun- 
taineers of  the  old  world  snuff  the  air  of  liberty  from  our  shores 
and  pant  for  the  blessings  we  e-njoy. 

What  has  done  this  ?  Opinion ! — mind  aroused,  and  stimulated 
into  action.  It  is  a  fearful  power  to  unloose,  but  it  is  more  fearful 
when  arbitrarily  confined.  When  ardent  truth  has  once  fallen 
where  it  kindles,  and  latent  thought  has  bet^n  draAvn  from  the 
quickened  mind,  it  thenceforth  becomes  a  sword  of  lightning  which 
no  material  scabbard  can  sheathe. 

The  volcano  in  eruption,  if  allowed  in  a  natural  way  to  expend 
it.^  force  may  be  comparatively  harmless.  Its  currents  of  noisome 
scoria  and  melted  rock  may  flow  down  through  channels  blasted 
by  outbursts  of  preceding  flame,  or  they  may  quietly  subside  at 
the  roots  of  richest  vines  to  improve  their  flavor  and  mature  the 
richest  fruit.  But  when  the  crater  is  closed  by  force,  and  the 
abortive  attempt  is  made  with  coercive  bonds  to  imprison  internal 
heat,  then  there  is  danger  all  around.  No  one  can  safely  anticipate 
where  or  in  what  shape  the  inevllalile  rxjdosien  will  apjicar.  'S  ou 
may,  if  you  rhoosi^,  play  with  the  uncaged  lion, — you  may 
tantalize  the  lig(>r  when  ilio  first  gush  of  worm  blood  is  on  his 
gnashing  iceili,  I.iit  do  not  peril  yourselves  and  your  country  by 
sporting  with  an  inccuscd  public  opinion  ! 


13 

"At  whom  do  lions  cast  their  f;enl!e  looks T 

Not  to  the  beast  thdt  would  usurp  their  den. 

Whose liand  is  tiiatthe  forest  beardnth  lick'^ 

Not  his,  that  spoils  her  young  before  her  face. 

Who  scapes  the  lurking  serpent's  mortal  sting  1 

Not  he  that  sets  his  foot  upon  her  lack.  ' 

The  smallest  worm  will  turn  when  trodden  on  ; 

And  doves  will  peck,  in  safeguard  of  their  brood." 

The  age  of  physical  force  is  passing  away.  Men  are  begin- 
ning to  be  less  enthusiastic  in  heroising  their  fellow  men  for 
wholesale  murder.  Probably  we  shall  not  vote  the  apothcsis  of 
many  more  military  chieftains.  The  gladiatorship  of  mind  m.ust 
be  our  peril  and  our  glory.  It  is  useless  to  stand  still  and  frown, 
as  if  we  could  wink  difficulties  away.  If  a  great  conflict  arises, 
why  "  let  the  weakest  fend  off.  "     Two  things   demand  gratitude. 

First,  God  gives  the  best  minds  the  widest  field.  All  souls 
have  some  points  of  contact.  Love  of  fraud  and  error  are  unnatu- 
ral. One  true  soul  will  touch  the  latent  springs  in  every  other. 
The  sparks  of  genius  will  kindle.  The  voice  of  reason,  truth 
and  justice  will  eventually  be  heard.  The  whole  earth  listens. 
When  the  ambassador  from  God  shall  appear  with  true  creden- 
tials,— a  heart  to  feel  every  throbbing  of  humanity  and  an  intel- 
lect armed  and  ready  to  make  aggressions  on  every  tyranical  foe, 
that  man  will  be  heard  ! 

In  the  second  place,  God  gives  favor  to  the  best  men  by  ensur- 
ing their  success.  The  certainty  of  triumph  lies  in  the  inherent 
superiority  of  truth  over  error.  Good  men  have  a  wide  field, — 
they  ask  no  favor  but  a  fair  one.  If  this  is  unjustly  forbidden,  it 
is  only  a  momentary  restraint.  Every  free  element  comes  to  their 
aid.  Some  press  Avill  throw  out  rays  of  light.  Some  kindred 
soul  will  speak.  Slander  only  reduplicates  truth  indirectly  by  its 
repititions  of  detraction.  Every  breeze  blows  but  to  augment  the 
treasure  it  circulates.  Every  bounding  billow  rolls  joyously  on 
to  the  world's  limits,  rejoicing  in  the  dissemination  of  that  which 
is  most  like  itself — truth  ! — knowing  no  fear  and  yielding  to  no 
chain,  but  living  on  forever,  boundless,  fetterless,  sublime!  Who 
is  so  mean  as  to  quail  before  the  discussion  of  any  important  truth  ? 

"  If  we  have  wh;spcr:d  truth. 

Whisper  no  longer ; 
But  speak  as  the  thunder  doth, 

Sterner  and  stronger." 

If  a  storm  gathers  in  the  political  or  moral  heavens,  it  is  more 
than  folly,  in  our  age,  to  depricate  its  approach  or  fear  its  might. 
We  must  have  men   of  no  whimpering,  childish   composition   to 


14 

r 

conduct  off  safely  the  elements  of  cumulated  wrath.  Men  who 
efficiently  serve  their  f^'-enera'ion  arc  of  this  mettle.  They  were 
anticipated  and  described  by  the  classic  poet, — the  moral  giants 
who  march  along  the  earth  and  across  the  ocean,  but  their  front 
is  among  the  stars.  They  do  not  stand  with  pale  lips  and  quak- 
ing knees,  but  grasping  the  pillars  of  the  temple  where  tyranny 
sits  enthroned,  not  in  blindness,  like  the  strong  man  of  old,  to  be 
self  immolated,  they  crush  oppression  from  its  iron  throne  and 
trample  in  their  strength  on  the  colossal  ruins.  Day  and  night, 
sunshine  and  storm,  are  vicissitudes  which  neither  impede  such 
men  nor  change  their  course.  They  are  not  weathercocks  to  be 
turned  by  the  winds,  but  they  take  their  positions  in  storms,  like 
the  Alps,  to  turn  the  wind.  A  great  American  poet  has  told  us 
the  whole  truth  in  lines  worthy  of  the  country  and  the  man : 

"  Truth  crush'd  to  earth  shall  rise  agairr, 

The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers  ; 
But  error  wounded  writhes  in  pain, 

And  dies  among  her  worshippers.  " 

It  is  suggested  in  our  text  that  the  service  we  owe  our  age  is 
measured  and  sanctioned  by  the  Divine  will.  "  David  served  his 
generation  by  the  will  of  God. "  How  shall  we  deserve  this 
eulogium  1  We  must  rise  above  a  slavish  devotion  to  a  sect,  and 
consult  our  common  Father's  will.  We  must  so  far  loosen  our- 
selves from  a  segment  of  the  circle  of  humanity  as  to  comprehend 
the  whole.  When  men  are  fujiously  and  fanatically  fond  of  a 
particular  object,  they  will  prefer  it  to  their  0A\'n  peace,  to  their 
own  life,  and  to  every  other  claim.  Men  should  be  decided,  all 
men  should  have  their  sentiments  well  understood  by  themselves 
and  frankly  avowed  to  others.  "'Tis  noble  to  have  a  giant's 
strength,  but  not  to  use  it  as  a  giant. "  We  should  be  open  to 
conviction  while  we  are  enforcing  it.  The  outlet  of  generosity  is 
the  inlet  of  true  greatness.  "The  liberal  soul, "  said  Solomon, 
"shall  be  made  fat."  God  puts  a  noble  and  generous  man  into  stall- 
feed,  while  the  poor,  meagre,  miserable  miser  is  left  to  shrivel  up 
his  pigmy  soul  in  this  world,  and  in  the  great  winnowing  day  of 
God's  almightiness,  the  crisped  and  haggard  i/iin<i-  will  be  blown 
into  eternal  despair  by  the  burning  winds  of  contempt. 

The  will  of  God  requires  us  not  to  elevate  a  few  by  depressing 
the  many,  but  on  the  contrary  to  seek  the  greatest  good  of  the 
greatest  number.  What  means  arc  to  be  used  ?  Tliis  brings  mo 
to  the  great  point  I  woiikl  enforce  in  all  this  discourse.  AV^e  must 
educate.  Let  us  not  leave  the  mass  of  mind  to  grow  ignorant  and 
corrupt,  and  afterwards  attempt  coercively  to  bind  it.  Xerxes 
may  as  well  expect  to  chain  the  vexed  Hellespont  in  peace.  Le- 
gislation is  impotent  any  longer  to  resist  the  beamings  of  a  bright- 
er day.     Knowledge  is  generous  and  communicative,  and  jealous- 


15 

sy  at  its  progress  is  a  sure  symptom  of  its  Avant,  But,  thank  God, 
the  day  has  come  when  it  cannot  be  successfully  resisted.  Super- 
stition may  condemn  Galileo  for  his  improved  astronomy,  but  the 
earth  continues  to  turn  round  with  all  its  stupid  inhabitants  revolv- 
ing- into  light.  Some  are  born  in  darkness,  have  always  dwelt 
there  from  choice,  it  is  their  native  land,  for  it  they  fight,  and  it  is 
the  only  sense  in  which  they  are  patriotic.  This  is  natural,  but 
they  and  all  like  them  who  fear  the  efTulgence  bursting  up  the 
horizon  should  quickly  kindle  counter  fires  and  educate,  educate  ! 
The  more  obstructions  you  throw  before  the  flooding  tide  of  know- 
ledge, the  more  destructive  energies  will  be  developed.  The 
force  of  cannon  may  quell  mobs,  but  education  will  prevent  them. 
Moral  power  creates  the  strongest  munitions  of  safety ;  while 
arbitrary  compulsion  degrades  both  the  tyrant  and  his  victim. 
We  may  expect  that  a  few  will  continue  to  cry  out  against  in- 
creased illumination,  as  that  which  they  depricate  shames  bigotry, 
cures  superstition,  and  destroys  all  tyranny  over  body  and  soul. 
But  the  fire-cross  of  wisdom  is  shining  from  hill-top  to  hill-top, 
and  is  rapidly  bounding  from  hand  to  hand.  Aggressions  into 
the  kingdom  of  darkness  have  commenced.  We  do  not  "  cry 
havoc  and  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war, "  but  in  God's  name  and  for 
all  God's  creatures  we  do  say  "  Let  there  be  Light!  "  It  is  said 
that  if  the  beak  of  a  bird  is  bound  up  fast,  and  his  wings  broken, 
he  can  still  live  and  breathe  through  the  hollow  bones.  But,  say 
we,  give  the  bird  both  wings  and  beak  to  be  used  as  heaven  de- 
signed. Epictetus  told  his  sovereign  that  he  would  confer  a 
greater  favor  upon  the  state  by  elevating  the  thoughts  of  the  peo- 
ple than  by  raising  the  roofs  of  their  houses. 

To  sow  the  seeds  of  thought  in  uncultivated  mind,  is  the  first 
duty  of  this  age ;  and  on  the  timely  discharge  of  this  duty  our  sal- 
vation depends.  The  lower  classes  must  be  made  intelligent  men 
before  they  can  possibly  become  useful  citizens.  The  time  will 
soon  come  if  it  has  not  already  dawned,  when  the  greatest  martial 
victory  ever  achieved  will  be  regarded  as  infinitely  less  important 
than  the  opening  of  the  first  Lyceum  or  the  establishment  of  an 
additional  school.  Mind,  ruling  with  a  sway  as  peaceful  as  sun- 
light, like  it  will  be  most  powerful.  There  are  not  physical 
energies  enough  in  the  universe  to  bend  one  thought  of  the  human 
soul :  and  if  we  can  succeed  in  training  the  rising  generation  as 
they  should  be  trained,  each  youth  will  become  an  intelligent  pat- 
riot ready  to  say  to  any  oppressor  as  the  ancient  hero  said — 
"  You  may  destroy  the  case  of  Anaxarchus,  himself  you  cannot 
reach.  " 

The  extent  and  resources  of  our  country  ought  to  stimulate  us 
to  prompt  and  persevering  action  in  this  enterprise.  We  have 
already  under  cultivation  a  fragment  of  our  vast  domain,  includ- 
ing twenty-six  sovereign  states,  some  of  which  are  larger  and  more 
powerful  than  whole   kingdoms   in  Europe.     We  are  occupying 


16 

an  :ivf',a  of  two  million  throe  hnnrlred  thoris-and  squire  niil<  s  ;  or, 
one  bill  ion  four  hiuvJrod  and  sevrnty  two  iiiillioii  acres'.  What 
a  theatre  is  here  spread  out  for  the  lust  experimmt  of  civilization! 
A  son  of  the  Pilgrims  may  turn  his  back  on  the  dust  of 
his  sires  and  the  foam  of  his  ocean  haunts,  and  travel  three 
thousand  miles  towards  the  s  tting-  sun,  and  still  be  on  his  father- 
land. The  most  magnificent  scenery  will  greet  him  everywhere. 
Chains  of  inland  seas,  and  innumerable  majestic  rivers  leaping 
from  their  mountain  springs,  and  coursing  from  Columbus  to  Ore- 
gon, from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  New  Orleans,  may  entice 
him- on  through  every  zone  and  every  clime,  from  the  stern  north 
to  the  balmy  south,  from  the  regions  of  rock  and  ice  to  the  per- 
petual zephyr  and  rose,  a  journey  of  twenty  thousand  miles,  and 
ytt  he  will  not  have  passed  from  his  fatherland. 
But  what  if  along  our  coasts,  our  rivers,  our  plantations,  mind  lies 
passive  to  the  bigot  and  the  demagogue?  What  if  some  crafty 
intriguer,  clothing  his  hollow  pretensions  in  "  the  rhinosceros 
skin  of  impudence,"  shall  act  the  part  of  a  baser  Cromwel  here, 
by  launching  from  the  little  fulcrum  of  a  military  and  religious 
d'spotism  a  power  which  once  annihilated  all  that  remained  to 
England  of  church  and  parliament,  frightened  the  great  nation 
mto  submissive,  dumb  despair,  and 

"  hewed  the  throne 
Down  to  a  block  !" 

Let  foreign  bigots  flood  our  land,  and  native  intellect  be  steeped 
in  ignorance  but  for  a  brief  cycle  of  yf^ars,  and  the  dreadful  end 
will  come,  the  last  experiment  of  republican  government  will  fail, 
patriotism  will  perish  and  this  great  national  compact  will  tumble 
to  ruins,  like  a  globe  shattered  by  earthquakes.  We  must  educate. 
We  must  supjily  the  means  to  cultivate  the  hardy  yeomanry 
scattered  over  "the  low-lying  fields  of  our  beautiful  land." 
Especially  is  it  needed  that  the  cant  and  teenies  of  religion  should 
give  place  to  a  geneious  spirit  and  an  active  benevolence.  Make 
the  pulpit  respectable  and  it  will  be  respected.  Do  not  drive  thin- 
king men  from  the  sanctuary.  Let  the  altar  of  Gton  remain 
attractive  as  it  was  originally  designed,  the  watch  tower  of  wisdom 
and  not  the  throne  of  dulness.  Keep  teachers  of  religion  out  of 
the  political  arena.  May  God  paralize  the  hand  that  Avoukl  imitc 
church  and  state  und-r  our  skies.  We  can  dispense  with  such  a 
curse.  Let  statesmen  look  well  to  their  appropriate  businrss.  and 
let  religionists  see  that  trutli  is  not  perverti  d  nor  morals  injured. 
No  preacher  should  be  a  parti.^an,  but  every  herald  of  the  Cross 
should  be  a  sentient  nerve  of  Freedom,  the  toughest  sinew  in  the 
whole  body  of  patriotism. 

The.  result  and  reward  of  a  useful  life  is  a  peaceful  death. 
When  David  had  served  his  generation  "he  fell  on  sleep."     This 


i7 

beautiful  description  of  a  peaceful  termination  of  life's  toils  and 
solicitudes,  is  applied  to  David,  Solomon,  Jehosaphat  and  Hezekiah 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  to  Lazarus  and  Stephen  in  the  New. 
To  the  conscientious  there  is  no  guile  in  life,  and  to  the  useful 
there  is  no  terror  in  death. 

"  The  good  man  lays  his  hand  upon  the  skies 
And  bids  earth  roll,  nor  heeds  her  idle  whirl." 

He  who  has  consulted  the  will  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  man- 
kind in  the  transactions  of  his  life,  will  not  fear  with  Moses  to  "  go 
up  into  mount  Nebo  and  die  in  the  mou7it.'^  The  veteran  chris- 
tian be  his  walk  of  life  what  it  may,  will  hear  the  summons 
without  remorse,  and  like  the  venerable  Grecian  sage  surrounded 
by  grateful  pupils,  will  calmly  fold  his  mantle  about  him  and  sit 
down  to  die.  He  bids  the  world  good  night  and  wakes  in  eterni- 
ty all  fresh  for  an  immortal  race  and  reward ! 

The  purpose  of  this  discourse  will  be  lost  unless  an  immediate 
effect  is  produced  on  those  who  hear  it.  We  have  no  time  to 
waste.  The  remote  horizon  gleams  with  lurid  foretokenings,  the 
monitory  thunder  mutters  hoarsely,  and  reverberates  through 
subterranean  caves.  The  sagacious  look  thoughtful,  and  the 
patriotic  with  suppressed  forebodings  anticipate  coming  storms. 
There  is  no  better  alternative  than  to  prepare  for  them.  To  be 
conscious  of  our  peril,  is  to  be  already  in  a  propitious  condition 
to  avert  it.  To  have  good  men  among  us  well  educated,  is  to 
possess  the  richest  gifts  of  a  beneficent  Providence ;  but  to  suffer 
imder  great  powers  perverted,  is  to  be  scourged  with  the  bitterest 
curse.  An  uneducated  population  may  be  degraded;  a  population 
educated  in  unrighteousness  will  be  ungovernable.  The  one  may 
grind  in  slavery ;  the  other  will  give  anarchy  its  venom  and  its 
crimes.  All  lesser  luminaries  that  shone  on  the  reflecting  Nile 
found  no  responsive  melody ;  but  Avhen  the  Sun  shone  there,  even 
stony  Memnon  poured  forth  melodious  strains.  The  light  of  flow- 
ers, of  stars,  and  of  kindred  intellect  may  with  intellect  harmon- 
ize in  the  notes  of  inarticulate  praise,  but  it  is  only  the  highest  light 
that  wakes  the  adoration  of  gratitude  vocal  and  sincere.  A  palace 
of  ice  may  be  radient  with  hues  as  splendid  as  they  are  cold,  but 
Avhile  the  fabric  is  admired  it  melts,  and  as  its  treacherous  material 
grows  liquid  around  the  imprisoned  occupant,  his  remorse  will 
ignite  it  into  a  sea  of  flame. 

It  is  demanded  by  our  country  and  our  God  that  you  who 
occupy  the  principal  places  should  be  men  of  principle.  Your 
talents,  all  the  influences  you  can  wield,  are  to  be  consecrated  to 
the  public  good.  Your  responsibility  is  fearfully  great.  If  you 
err  even  in  an  honest  view  of  your  duty,  mistake  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  wound  the  constitution  under  which  we  subsist  or  indulge 
prrN'ate  passion  at  the  cost  of   the  general  weal,  than  will  you 


18 

suffer  the  reprisal  which  neither  wealth  nor  station  can  avert, — • 
you  will  receive  in  your  persons,  and  forever  pay  in  your  fame, 
the  penalty  of  those  whom  Providence  signalizes  as  doomed  but  not 
useless  barriers  to  the  violent  current  of  changeful  times.  If  any 
wish  to  augment  the  fury  of  gathering  waters  by  braving  them, 
they  Avill  only  prepare  fertility  for  coming  generations  by  forcing 
them  to  sweep  away  unrighteous  impediments,  and  then  to  waste 
their  rage  in  diffusion.  Every  violence  done  to  human  rights 
is  grimly  noted  down  in  the  grand  impeachment-book  by  the 
Genius  of  Humanity  who  patiently  waits  till  the  shadow  upon  the 
darkening  political  sun-dial  points  the  hour  of  retribution.  The 
crafty  demagogue  may  hurl 

"  Hij  dazzling  .spells  into  the  spungy  air 
Of  power  to  cheat  the  eye  with  blear  illusion 
And  give  it  false  presentimenls, 

but  hypocritical  falsehood  is  always  suicidal  to  its  o\\ti  interests. 
"Be  ye  sure  your  sin  will  find  you  out."  The  gawdy  shows 
of  the  coronation  of  chicanery  and  ignorance  cannot  endure  and 
will  not  long  beguile.  Restless  wisdom  Jias  a  broom  to  give  to 
the  world  a  speedy  riddance  of  all  such  nuisances. 

We  all  have  a  great  work  to  do.  Polfeal  asperity  should  be 
softened,  popular  ignorance  dispersed,  and  a  moral  emancipation 
every  where  achieved.  This  will  require  protracted  and  incessant 
toil.  It  is  vain  to  wait  for  some  potent  magic  to  change  the  cha- 
racter of  a  people  all  at  once.  We  have  the  inveterate  habits  of 
centuries  to  conquer.  A  copious  administration  of  food  is  not  the 
most  prudent  means  of  curing  the  debility  which  results  from 
protracted  abstinance.  The  influence  of  example  descends.  We 
must  have  purity,  patriotism  and  piety  in  high  places.  We  need 
statesmen  who  shall  aspire  not  so  much  to  harrangue  each  other 
as  to  exemplify  exalted  virtues  before  a  great,  earnest  and  intelli- 
gent nation. 

Pardon  the  warmth  of  my  expressions.  I  know  where  I  am 
and  whom  I  am  addressing ;  but  tmder  the  eaves  of  your  magnifi- 
cent Capitol,  and  in  this  dense  throng  of  chivalrous  Southerners, 
I  think  of  that  venerable  christian  patriot  whose  son  was  my 
father,  and  on  whose  white  locks  my  young  brow  leaned  and 
learned  the  sentiments  wliich  he  enthusiastically  imbibed  from  the 
lips  of  Washington  and  Lafayette.  Not  like  Spartacus  do  I  rush 
to  this  scene  and  under  oppression  cry — "I'm  hereto  fight!" — 
but  as  a  free  man  among  tbe  free,  I  pray  yon  guard  well  and 
transmit  unimpaired  the  great  inheritance  which  our  fathers  won. 
Go  to  your  constituents  and  declare  your  purpose ;  and  if  some 
rival,  skilful  in  meanness,  commands  more  votes  because  his 
Avhiskey  equals  his  selfishness  let  him  enjoy  his  brief  triumph. 
Labor    generously  for  the  real  good  of  your  county  and  your 


19 

commonwealth,  while  life  lasts,  and  then  fall  on  sleep  as  gently 
as  the  beneficent  orb  of  day  sinks  from  human  view.  A  glorious 
reaction  will  follow,  and  your  son,  justly  proud  of  an  upright 
fiither's  integrity,  or  a  beneficiary,  rescued  from  obscurity  by  your 
kindness  and  educated  as  a  worthy  successor  in  the  legislative  hall 
will  stand  there  with  tears  of  gratitude  more  noble  than  a  coronet, 
and  inspired  with  an  eloquence  more  thrilling  and  magnanimous 
than  the  sycophancy  of  a  parasite  will  proclaim  in  deathless  tones 
that, 


" '    Man  was  made  to  know, 

And  there  will  be  a  time  when  thia  great  truth, 
Electric  shall  run  from  man  to  man, 
And  the  blood-cemented  pyramids  of  ignorance 
Shall  by  its  flash  be  thrown  to  earth  in  atoms— 
"When  it  shall  blaze  with  sun-refulgent  splendoF 
And  the  whole  earth  be  lighted." 

There  is  an  imposing  grandeur  in  public  testimonials  to  exalted 
worth.  It  is  a  noble  thing  to  honor  the  truly  excellent  of  our 
race ;  it  awakens  the  purest  sympathies  and  gives  energy  to  the 
most  generous  sentiments.  It  has  always  been  natural  for  nations 
to  associate  the  honors  rendered  to  great  men  with  religious  solem- 
nities. We  would  not  be  idolatrous,  neither  would  we  Avish  to 
deprive  society  of  the  illustrious,  nor  disenchant  human  nature  of 
the  love  of  glory.  We  Avould  only  have  men  seek  true  celebrity, 
by  executing  what  is  worthy  of  being  celebrated.  True  honor  is 
not  external ;  it  can  only  be  acquired  by  virtuous  integrity  in  all 
our  relations  to  man  and  God.  Moral  honor  alone  is  permanent. 
Like  a  hymn  it  is  always  attractive,  while  the  fleeting  pufT  of 
worldly  praise  is  like  a  street  song,  which  wearies  the  ear.  Fame 
created  and  sustained  by  intrinsic  worth  is  like  the  planets  on 
high.  To  our  imperfect  sense  they  may  sometimes  appear  to 
stand  still,  or  move  backward ;  while  in  reality,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Infinite,  they  never  are  arrested  in  their  orbits, 
but  Avith  an  original  and  sublime  momentum  compass  the 
heavens.  False  fame  is  like  a  gawdy  flag  floating  over  a 
foundered  ship;  it  streams  out  gaily  as  the  craft  sinks,  and  then 
disappears  forever.  Fondness  for  such  honors  is  certainly 
"avarice  of  air"  ;  Avhile  a  deep  passion  for  enduring  reputation  is 
among  the  noblest  emotions  of  the  human  heart.  The  mind  that 
is  indifferent  to  the  veneration  of  posterity  is  undeserving  of  co- 
temporary  esteem.  Citizens  and  Patriots  make  this  great  boon 
your  oAvn.  Secure  the  homage  of  unborn  generations,  by 
opening  fountains  to  supply  their  wants  as  they  rise.  Let  the 
stream  of  high  thoughts  and  generous  deeds  go  sounding  down 
the  future,  to  charm  the  dull  into  intelligence  and  rouse  the  obdu- 
rate into  praise,  deep  and  sublime  as  the  mighty  ocean. 


26 

There  are  in  this  congregation  many  christians,  and  christian 
ministers.  Let  us,  my  brethren,  approach  the  holy  ahar  in  spirit, 
and  before  this  solemn  stillness  is  broken  by  the  moving  mass,  like 
the  young  Carthagenian  swear  eternal  enmity  to  every  vice. 
Then  may  a  Father's  blessing  go  with  us,  our  words  of  stern  truth 
be  more  often  a  warning  than  a  prophecy,  and  our  influence  in  the 
cause  of  God  and  our  country  continually  increased, 

"Till  wrapt  in  fire  the  realms  of  ether  glow, 

And  heaven's  last  thunders  shake  the  world  below.'' 


,EVIEW  ,^ 


OP 


THE  SERMON  OF  THE  RT.  REV'D  L.  S.  IVES,  D.  D., 


"BISHOP  OF  NORTH-CAROLINA," 


AT  THE  CONSECHATION  OF 


TfflE  RT.  REVB  JOHM  JOIIIVg,  B.  D. 


ASSISTANT  BISHOP  OF  VIRGINIA. 


BY  THE  REV'D  BENNETT  T.  BLAKE, 

OP  THE  NORTH-CAEOLINA  CONPERHNCE. 


RALEIGH: 

T.  LOHING,  PRINTER — OFFICE  OF  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  STANDARD. 

1843. 


«lt 


y 


#.. 


*••      •  ^»- 


:♦ 


0t  TO  THE  READER. 


"What  is  ihi.s  dreain  that    thou  ha-^t  dreamed?      Shall  I  and  thy   mother  and    thy 
brethren  indeed  come  to  bow  down  ourselves  to  tlice,  to  the  earth?" 


Reader:  The  age  of  miracle*  and  prophetic  vision  liaa  passed  away — the  world  is 
growing"  old  and  tremulous.  Signs  and  wonders  are  seen  in  the  earth,  in  the  heaven.«, 
and  under  the  earth.  Terrific  dreams  disturb  our  repo.?e — and  waking-  viaion.-s,  unliko  de- 
parted and  unhappy  ghosts,  go  not  away  "when  the  light  of  the  morning  breakeih." 
Now  the  Raven's  croak — that  dread  precursor  of  Death — spreads  terror  in  the  donie.stic 
circle,  and  the  little  ones  draw  closer  to  the  maternal  arm.  The  fiery  Comet  with  its 
blazing  trail,  portentous  of  approaching  war,  sweeps  in  its  unmeasured  orbit  over  our 
world.  The  sun  goes  down  behind  a  lowering  sky.  Forked  lightnings  skip  and  play 
amidst  the  sombre  clouds,  in  lines  of  lurid  light;  and  loud,  rustling  thunder — "the  ma- 
jestic voice  of  an  angry  God" — ^peal  after  peal,  strikes  consternation  in  the  guilty  heart. 
When  lo!  riding  above  the  storm,  One  like  the  Son  of  God  appears  in  sight,  and  uttera 
the  language  of  reproof — "Ye  hypocrites!  ye  can  discern  the  face  of  the  sky,  but  cannot 
discern  the  signs  of  the  times."  Then  came  one  and  told  his  dream,  saying  "The  bur- 
den of  the  Lord,  the  burden  of  the  Lord;"  and  another  asked  "What  is  this  dream  that 
thou  hast  dreamed?  Shall  I  and  thy  mother  and  thy  brethren  indeed  come  to  bow  down 
ourselves  to  thee,  to  the  earth?"  and  he  ran  to  inquire  of  the  Lord.  And  the  Lord  said, 
"Is  not  my  word  like  as  fire,  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the  rock  in  pieces?  The 
Prophet  that  hath  a  dream,  let  him  toll  a  dream :  and  he  that  hath  my  word,  let  hiui  speak 
my  word  faithfully!  AVhat  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat?"  saith  the  Lord.  "And  when  I 
looked,  behold  a  hand  was  sent  into  me,  and  lo!  a  roll  of  a  book  was  tlierein,  and  he 
spread  it  before  me  :  and  it  was  written  within  and  without,  and  therein  lamentations  and 
mourning  and  wo."  And  when  I  awoke,  I  found  I  had  been  reading  the  Sermon  of 
4;     Bishop  Ives. 

Reader!  Catholic,  Protestant,  or  Dissenter,  procure  the  Sennon.'  Read,  learn,  mark, 
and  properly  digest  it,  if  you  can,  and  you  will  be  more  ready  than  ever,  in  the  language 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  Reformation,  mo.st  devoutly  to  pray:  "Fron>  all  false  doctrine, 
"heresy  and  schism,  from  hardness  of  heart  and  contempt  of  thy  word  ana  conunand- 
"ment — Good  Lord  deliver  us !" 


REVIEW. 

By  a  careful  examination  of  the  principles  and  statements  set  forth 
in  the  Sermon  of  the  Rt.  Rev'd  L.  Silliman  Iv^s,  the  intelligent 
reader  will  not  fail  to  discover  that  the  Sermon,  in  its  published  form, 
is  designed  to  arouse  Churchmen  in  Virginia  and  North-Carolina  from 
a  too  quiescent  and  conservative  state  in  regard  to  heresy  and  schism, 
(as  these  terms  are  applied  to  other  Churches,)  which  the  Bishop  saw 
every  where  abounding,  and  often  running  into  the  prurience  and 
excess  of  novelty.  Appropriating  to  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
the  name  of  Catholic — limiting  the  generic  term  of  christian  to 
the  members  of  his  own  sect,  and  ranking  all  other  Churches  under 
the  general  denomination  of  dissenters^  and  sometimes  professors  of 
the  faith — the  reverend  gentleman  overlooks,  for  the  time  being  at 
least,  the  evils  existing  in  the  Catholic  Church  and  ^'-ihe  world  at 
larf^e,^''  and  enters,  like  a  redoubtable  champion,  into  the  general  cru- 
sade of  high-churchmen  against  these  pestiferious  sects,  defined  in  the 
appendix  as  "Romanist,  Calvinist,  Socinian,  Methodist,  and  their  kin- 
dred hosts;"  exhorting  and  invocating,  most  feelingly  and  piteously, 
the  Bishops  and  Clergy,  and  all  true  churchmen,  to  put  on  the  armor 
of  ancient  Apostolical  authority,  and  aid  him  in  extirpating  schism 
and  heresy  and  semi-infidelity,  as  they  are  revealed  in  all  their  propor- 
tions, under  the  various  modifications  of  dissent — a  principle  so  an- 
tagonistical  to  the  catholic  unity  of  the  Church,  that  one,  if  not  both, 
must  needs  die  in  the  conflict — assuring  them,  by  the  most  infallible 
arguments  and  the  most  candid  statements,  that  the  prosperity  of  the 
Church  catholic  has  been  greatly  diminished,  her  glory  obscured,  her 
advancement  retarded,  if  not  entirely  obstructed,  by  dissenters ;  that 
the  difficulties  of  the  success  of  the  modern  Apostles  have  increased 
to  such  an  alarming  degree,  by  the  degeneracy  of  the  times,  that  the 
heart  of  a  Bishop  well  nigh  fails  at  the  appalling  scene  upon  which  he 
gazes  ; — that,  in  view  of  these  difficulties  and  embarrassments,  it  is  the 
first  duty  of  Bishop  Johns  to  come  out  openly  and  decidedly  a  high- 
churchman  ;  to  lower  the  white  flag  of  peace  and  amity ;  to  raise  the 
banner  of  the  cross,  bearing  on  one  side  in  no  ambiguous  terms  the 
inscription  Apostolical  Succession,  and  on  the  reverse  Episcopacy 


4 

Diocesan  jure  divino ;  that  under  this  banner  all  true  churchmen 
should  unite ;  that  by  lessening  the  comprehension  of  their  charity 
and  amity,  and  bringing  them  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  system 
of  Catholic  exclusion,  they  should  not  only  put  themselves  in  a  pos- 
ture of  defence,  but  resume  the  originally  aggressive  character  of  the 
Apostolical  Church  in  its  purest  and  most  ancient  form — not  so  much 
as  a  witness  and  defender  of  the  truth  against  the  wickedness  and  pro- 
fligacy of  '^theivorld  at  laj'gc,'"  but  as  a  reprover  of,  sectarian  infi- 
delity, which,  under  the  m.ask  of  a  loud  and  rampant  pro/e55io?i,  shel- 
ters itself  against  the  weapons  of  truth,  securely  entrenched  within  the 
enclosures  of  some  modification  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  from  which  it 
may  now  more  successfully  assail  the  institutions  of  the  Catholic 
Church ;  that,  inasmuch  as  they,  and  they  o?ili/  who  are  thus  truly 
catholic,  compose  the  one  only  true  Apostolical  Church,  it  is  their  duty 
as  christians,  in  the  only  available  sense,  not  only  to  contend  for  the 
faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  Saints,  and  now  in  the  highest  sense 
committed  to  their  trust,  but,  as  churchmen,  to  contend  for  Episcopacy, 
as  the  only  instituted  means,  as  the  only  channel  of  mercy  and  grace 
to  the  otherwise  desperate  necessities  of  dissenters^  as  well  as  other 
condemned  sinners; — that,  in  view  of  this  desperate  condition  of 
^^  these  men  as  a  hody^^  it  is  the  very  highest  act  of  mercy  and  charity 
to  make  an  effort,  however  unsuccessful,  to  inform  them,  to  correct 
their  errors,  and  bring  them  into  a  state  of  certain  salvation^  through 
the  interposition  of  a  divinely  constituted  ministry. 

After  carefully  reading  the  Sermon  over  and  over  ngain,  weighing 
its  studied  and  ingenious  phraseology,  we  sum  up  its  contents  in  the 
words  of  a  strong  and  perspicuous  writer  on  a  similar  occasion,  vary- 
ing only  a  few  terms  to  justify  the  application  of  our  views  to  the 
Bishop's  Sermon,  instead  of  to  the  publication  of  the  Bishop  of  Aire, 
which  called  forth  the  "Difficulties  of  Romanism,"  by  Geo.  Stanley 
Faber,  Rector  of  Longnewton,  England: 

"Of  this  Sermon  the  main  object  is  evidently  the  proselytism  of 
Methodist  and  other  dissenting-  laity.  Such  being  the  case,  it  was 
necessary  on  the  one  hand  to  attack  dissenters  generally,  while  on 
the  other  it  was  equally  necessary  to  vindicate  and  to  recommend  tiie 
peculiar  doctrines  and  practices  of  high-chnrchmen.  The  respectable 
author  of  the  Sermon  is  a  Prelate  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Chnrch 
of  the  Diocess  of  North-Carolina.  lie  has  undertaken  to  exhibit  the 
peculiarities  of  high-church  divinity,  as  they  really  exist,  not  as  they 


5 

are  alleged  to  have  been  disfigured  by  the  Oxford  tract  writers^  or 
dissenting  misi'epresentations ;  and  in  his  high  Episcopal  character 
he  may  be  viewed  as  one  who  speaks  with  a  full  measure  both  of 
knowledge  and  of  authority.  Under  the  hands  of  the  exenjplary 
Bishop  of  North-Carolina,  high-chiirchism  appears  in  its  most  capti- 
vating habiliments.  Whatever  might  awaken  the  suspicions  of  a 
dissenter  is  gracefully  and  ingeniously  decorated  by  a  glowing  con- 
ception and  a  fervid  eloquence.  Doctrines  and  practices  which  the 
articles  and  homilies  had  taught  us  to  look  upon  with  unutterable  dis- 
like, are  shown,  on  the  professed  score  of  scriptural  and  primitive 
Christianity,  to  be  not  only  lawful,  expedient  and  most  eligible,  but 
even  venerable  and  obligatory.  And  that  alone  Catholic  Church, 
which  the  distempered  imogination  of  the  panic-struck  dissenters,  and 
a  due  proportion  of  Protestant  Reform.ers  in  the  Church  of  England 
and  the  United  States,  had  charged  with  verging  towards  an  unmixed 
spiritual  despotism,  proves,  upon  a  candid  examination,  to  be  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  Gospel,  wherewith  Christ 
has  made  us  free.  If,  then,  high-churchism,  even  as  exhibited  by  such 
an  advocate  as  the  Bishop  of  North-Carolina,  still  presents  such  insep- 
arable difficulties,  the  sober  churchman,  as  well  as  the  dissenter,  will 
at  least  pause  before  he  adopts  a  theological  system  thus  unhappily 
circumstanced." 

We  have  long  since  desired  to  see  under  what  modification  the 
theological  system  of  Oxford  would  make  its  appearance  in  the  Pro- 
testant Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States ;  there  being  so  little 
affinity  between  that  freedom  of  worship  which  is  so  successfully 
maintained  in  her  articles  and  liturgy,  and  that  form  of  spiritual  des- 
potism which  has  been  but  too  extensively  revived  and  promulgated 
under  the  imposing  names  of  "ancient  Christianity"  and  evangelical 
piety.  And  although  it  does  not  come  to  us  in  the  Sermon  of  Bishop 
Ives,  like  the  meteorous  and  portentous  glare  which  streams  across 
the  Atlantic,  it  nevertheless  falls  gently  on  us  like  the  changeful  moon- 
light from  the  shores  of  New  Jersey.  If  the  pure  coin,  bearing  the  full 
image  and  superscription  of  D.  Hook,  has  not  been  imported  into  the 
American  Church  in  sufficient  quantity  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  a 
circulating  medium,  enough  has  come  to  us  to  enable  us  to  mould  our 
symbols  after  the  same  likeness  and  image,  and  thereby  to  supply  the 
desideratum  out  of  our  domestic  manufacture.  Hence  in  the  short 
space  of  a  few  years,  newspaper  scribblers,  tract-writing  sermonizers, 


and  book  makers,  soma  with  names  and  some  without  names.  Hke  the 
ephemera  ot  nature,  drawn  out  ot  their  cells  by  a  genial  sun,  have  sal- 
lied forth  from  their  long  night  and  winter  of  discontent,  to  breathe 
and  live  and  flutter  among  kindred  nnimalculac,  until  the  short  day 
that  gave  them  birth  sinks  to  rest.  The  coming  forth  of  these,  under 
the  burning  zeal  of  the  master-spirits  of  Oxford,  has  called  forth  an- 
other tribe  equally  strong,  courageous  and  belligerent,  and  a  war  of 
extermination  seems  to  have  bcgim.  At  all  events  these  skirmishes 
between  the  small  tribes  seem  to  have  been  a  prelude  to  a  more  geneml 
and  more  irreconcilable  hostility  between  the  two  adverse  principles  of 
spiritual  domination  and  religious  frredom.  In  this  contest,  it  may  be 
said  with  truth,  "Greek  has  met  Greek."  learning  has  met  learning, 
antiquity  has  met  antiquity,  authority  has  met  authority,  Bishop  has 
mot  Bishop  and  Archbishop  has  met  Archbishop,  Priest  has  met  Priest, 
layman  has  met  layman,  until  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  if  they  have 
not  been  combatants,  have  mixed  an  itching  desire  to  share  in  the 
spoils  of  victory.  Although  the  battle-field  be  not  in  those  once  happy 
and  sunny  plains  where  first  the  war-worn  Trojan  found  a  liomeand 
a  heart  in  the  hospitabh  dome  of  the  Latin  King  and  his  lovely  daugli- 
ter,  where  the  Horatii  and  the  Curiatii,  to  stay  the  slaughter  of  their 
countrymen,  sacrificed  their  lives  on  the  altar  of  patriotism ;  although 
the  deadly  strife  may  not  be  going  on  in  the  valley  between  the  Capi- 
toline  and  the  duernal  hills,  where  for  the  last  time  Roman  and  Sabine 
arms  clashed  in  direful  conflict,  till  the  Roman  matrons,  allied  to  both 
by  nature's  sweetest  and  strongest  ties,  bade  them  put  up  the  sword — 
yet,  may  we  not  hope  that  the  fair  daughters  of  Jerusalem,  who  went 
forth  weeping,  to  behold  the  crucifixion  of  their  Lord,  may  have  tears 
to  spare  to  bathe  the  wounds  which  he  now  daily  receives  in  the  house 
of  his  friends? 

Disclaiming  all  personal  unkindness  to  Bishop  Ives,  entertaining 
for  the  Church  over  which  he  presides  naught  but  feelings  of  high 
christian  regard,  and  for  the  individual  members  of  the  Church  the 
most  sincere  and  unaffected  good  will,  which  we  liave  on  all  suitable 
occasions  evinced,  we  approach  the  task  upon  which  we  have  essayed 
to  enter,  under  the  most  honest  conviction  that,  if  we  succeed  in  what 
we  have  undertaken,  we  shall  alike  benefit  the  cause  of  true  piety, 
whether  in  the  Church  which  claims  to  be  the  only  true  Church,  or 
in  that  which  claims  an  humble  share  of  the  blessings  and  privileges 
of  the  family  of  Gud — 'the  household  of  faith,  buildcd  upon  the  Apos- 


ties  and  Prophets,  Jesus  Christ  liimsolf  being  the  chief  corner  stone." 

Tlie  hue  and  cry  which  has  been  made  against  dissent,  since  the 
reign  of  tlie  too  haughty  and  overbearing  Elizabeth,   Q,ueen  of 
England,  which  has  come  down  to  our  own  times,  like  the  rolling 
onward  of  the  coming  storm,  falls  gratingly  and  harshly  on  an  Ameri- 
can ear,  and  must  ever  be  regarded  by  all  considerate  men,  in  whose 
estimation  the  end  to  be  attained  does  not  sanctify  the  means,  as  one  of 
the  artifices  by  which  clerical  vanity  and  jealousy  endeavor  to  fortify 
themselves  in  the  possession  of  titles  which  they  have  not  legitimately 
acquired.     Next  to  the  assignation  of  a  false  cause  and  the  imputation 
of  evil  where  it  does  not  exist,  we  regard  the  frequent,  the  incessant 
application  of  dissent  to  the  different  Churches  in  the  United  States,  as 
one  of  the  most  disingenuous  devices  of  intelligent  men  to  perpetrate  a 
pious  fraud  upon  their  less  informed  fellow-citizens ;  to  harrow  up 
their  minds  by  terrifying  images,  rendered  the  more  horrible  and  mon- 
strous because  they  are  indistinctly  seen  or  imperfectly  defined;  and 
thereby  to  transfer  the  hatred  and  malignity  of  a  cruel  and  barbarous 
age  to  a  period  and  a  people  whose  chief  excellence  it  is  to  place  things 
in  their  true  position,  accurately  to  define  their  varied  relations,  and  to 
enforce,  by  equitable  laws,  as  far  as  possible,  their  mutual  obligations. 
Among  the  appellatives  used  for  this  purpose,  by  churchmen  of  the 
higher  order,  none  seems  to  be  so  availing  or  relied  on  so  much  as 
that  of  dissenter — a  term  imported,  with  other  like  commodities,  across 
the  Atlantic,  and  incorporated  in  the  vocabulary  of  Church  tactics : 
transferred  to  the  catechism  of  young  children,  and  taught  them  as 
regularly  as  the  Creed  and  Lord's  prayer.     Every  intelligent  man 
knows  that  in  its  application  to  the  different  Churches  in  the  United 
States,  it  has  neither  reason  nor  analogy  nor  common  sense  to  justify 
it ;  that  it  is  an  outrage  upon  the  courtesies  of  life,  upon  the  decencies 
and  proprieties  which  the  common  consent  of  mankind  regards  essen- 
tial to  the  well-being  of  society.    However,  in  the  American  States,  it 
has  no  meaning  at  all,  or  just  so  much  as  will  make  its  application  as 
proper  and  fitting  in  the  mouth  of  a  Mormon  Phrophet  as  in  that  of  a 
modern  Prelate.     In  this  country  we  have  no  ecclesiastical  machinery 
attached  to  the  Government ;  and  it  is  a  subject  of  devout  thankfulness 
to  Almighty  God,  that  we  have  not.     Had  it  been  otherwise,  the  vari- 
ous political  conflicts  and  revolutions  (as  has  been  the  case  in  Great 
Britain,  and  as  it  may  be  the  case  again)  instead  of  being  marked  only 
with  the  personal  disappointment  of  various  aspirants — and  if  you 


8 

please  so  to  acid,  pecuniary  embarrassmsiits  in  the  fiscal  operation  of 
the  Government  and  the  affairs  of  individuals — would  have  whirled 
on  in  their  accelerated  fury,  like  the  merciless  car  of  Juggernaut,  over 
the  best  blood  of  American  citizens.  Where,  then,  is  the  propriety  of 
familiarizing  to  our  minds  and  the  minds  of  our  children,  the  images 
of  things  which,  with  us,  have  never  existed  since  the  sages  of  the 
Revolution  laid  it  down  as  a  fundamental  principle  in  national  law, 
that  no  man  should  be  restrained  from  the  worship  of  God  according 
to  the  dictates  of  his  conscience,  so  long  as  he  regards  the  rights  of 
others  ?  When  our  enlightened  statesmen  laid  it  down  as  a  maxim  of 
judicious  policy,  that  error  may  be  tolerated  while  truth  is  left  free  to 
combat  it,  why,  let  me  ask,  do  we  continually  revive  the  images  of  the 
past,  unless,  like  desperate  adventurers,  we  sigh  over  some  irrevocable 
loss,  or  riot  in  fancy  on  the  pleasures  of  a  long  cherished  hope.  If 
after  all  that  has  been  said  for  years  past — after  our  own  charitable 
effort  to  reform  them  of  their  errors — churchmen  will  persist  contempt- 
uously to  style  us  dissenters,  we  shall  be  compelled  to  give  them  over 
as  incorrigible  offenders  if  not  contumaceous  schismatics,  to  the  "un- 
covenanted  mercies"  of  public  criticism;  as  legitimate  subjects  of  a 
literary  inquisition,  for  violating  the  rules  of  philological  accuracy, 
overturning  the  established  principles  of  logical  precision,  and  sinning 
against  the  common  decencies  of  christian  intercourse. 

As  the  main  point  of  attack  set  forth  in  the  Sermon  is  dissent,  we 
hope  the  reader  will  not  be  offended  if  we  take  some  little  pains  to 
define  the  term.  Walker  says :  ^'■Dissent,  a  verb,  to  disagree,  differ. 
Dissenter,  one  who  refuses  the  communion  of  the  English  Church." 
That,  of  course,  applies  to  those  who  live  under  the  English  Govern- 
ment. A  dissenter,  in  that  sense,  is  one  who  refuses  communion  in 
the  established  Church  of  the  Government  under  which  lie  lives. — 
Will  the  Bishop  allow  us  to  take  the  word  in  the  first  sense?  Then 
it  will  amount  to  this  :  We  dissent  from  the  Bishop,  and  he  dissents 
from  us ;  so  we  are  both  dissenters.  Will  he  take  it  in  the  second 
sense  ?  Then  the  Bishop  may  be  a  dissenter  from  the  Church  of  En- 
gland for  all  that  we  can  tell — at  least  he  does  not  pray  for  the  success 
of  Her  Majesty's  fleet  and  army  against  the  Chinese  ;  nor  do  his  mem- 
bers nor  himself,  like  the  oppressed  and  persecuted  dissenter,  pay  the 
burdensome  taxes  imposed  for  the  support  of  the  establishment,  what- 
ever maybe  the  character  of  the  parish  minister — whether  a  "cossacked 
huntsman  or  a  fiddling  Priest"— and  then  pay  their  own  minister,  and 


support  by  volantary  contributions  their  benevolent  institutions.  If 
the  Bishop  dissents,  we  do  not;  for  if  the  English  Church  has  been 
brought  over  to  the  American  States,  it  must  have  been  by  Bishop 
DoANE,  of  New  Jersey,  and  as  it  has  no  corporation  in  this  country, 
we  do  not  know  it,  either  in  civil  or  ecclesiastical  law. 

But  let  us  try  the  third  definition,  which  is  more  general,  and  say 
that  a  dissenter  is  one  who  refuses  communion  in  the  established 
Church  of  the  Government  under  which  he  lives.  If  this  is  what  the 
Bishop  and  other  high-churchmen  mean,  we  shall  not  fall  out,  though 
it  is  given  to  us  in  contempt,  without  the  least  propriety  of  speech.  If 
this  be  dissent,  we  are  content  to  bear  the  contumelious  sneer  of  the 
churchman  when  he  arranges  his  oro-ans  of  articulation  with  so  much 
precision  and  says  dissent.  We  are  in  company  with  some  of  the 
choicest  spirits,  whose  stern  and  unbending  courage  made  the  thrones 
of  the  CiESARS  tremble — not  by  thundering  anathemas,  but  by  reason- 
ing with  their  occupants  in  meekness  on  the  great  subjects  of  Righte- 
ousness, Temperance,  and  Judgment  to  come,  and  telling  the  simple 
story  of  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection.  In  this  respect,  at  least,  we  are 
the  followers  of  the  Apostles,  if  not  their  successors.  For  his  dissent 
from  Judaism,  Paul  says :  "Of  the  Jews,  five  times  I  received  forty 
stripes  save  one  ;  thrice  was  I  beaten  with  rods  ;  once  was  I  stoned  ; 
thrice  I  suffered  shipwreck ;  a  night  and  a  day  have  I  been  in  the 
deep."  We  find  ourselves  among  the  faithful  at  that  period  when 
the  courageous  Athanasius,  for  his  inflexible  adherence  to  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Gospel  in  opposition  to  the  decree  of  the  Emperor,  was 
banished  from  his  Episcopate  at  Alexandria ;  we  find  ourselves  in 
company  with  Wickliff,  that  luminous  star  that  rose  on  Britain's 
Isle,  the  precursor  of  the  glorious  Reformation ;  and  finally,  we  are 
with  Cranmer  and  Ridley,  and  thousands  of  Reformers  in  Eng- 
land, whose  blood  enriched  the  soil  of  their  country  and  made  it 
prolific  with  all  the  fruits  of  religious  ireedom.  "What  were  all  the 
Reformers  who  fell  victims  to  the  ferocity  of  Bloody  Queen  Mary? 
Who  saved  their  lives,  in  those  times  of  blood?  The  obsequious 
Parliament  and  the  obsequious  Clergy,  who — like  the  French  diplo- 
matist who  was  always  on  the  side  of  him  who  retained  the  power 
to  bestow  his  benefits — could  in  one  reign  call  the  Church  of  Rome 
a  harlot,  and  in  the  next  reign  submissively  ask  absolution  from 
the  Pope. 

Search  the  History  of  the  Church,  either  of  Catholic,  or  Reformed, 


10 

or  Protestant  history,  and  every  candid  and  impartial  man  will  see 
that,  in  almost  every  instance,  the  triumph  of  dis.^eiiters  has  heen  the 
triumph  of  religious  and  often  of  civil  freedom.  The  genius  of  liberty 
has  ever  hovered  over  them  ;  and  when  they  have  fallen,  she  has  wept 
and  hid  herself  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth. 

The  English  historian,  who,  though  he  was  an  infidel,  not  so 
much  in  respect  of  truo  Christianity  as  set  forth  by  its  most  blessed 
Author,  as  in  respect  to  that  mongrel  generated  by  the  extraordinary 
mixture  of  truth  with  error,  freedom  with  bondage,  which  the  English 
establishment  has  ever  exhibited,  and  which  it  will  continue  to  exhibit, 
under  its  present  modification — we  say,  the  historian  has  left  it  on 
record  that  the  Puritan  dissenters  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  "were  they 
by  whom  alone  the  precious  sparks  of  liberty  had  been  kindled  and 
were  preserved,  and  to  whom  the  English  owe  the  whole  freedom  of 
their  Constitution."'  And  yet  these  are  the  men  against  whom  the 
Sermon  aims  its  sternest,  heaviest  blows!  These  are  the  disturbers  of 
the  Bishop's  indivisible  and  universal  and  unchangeable  unit !  To 
put  down  whom,  he  most  imploringly  and  piteously  calls  upon  the 
Bishops  and  all  good  churchmen  to  unite!  That  tliis  is  the  main 
design  of  the  Sermon  appears  on  its  face,  its  body,  and  its  appendages. 
If  any  further  proof  were  necessary,  we  have  it  at  hand,  in  the  ante- 
cedent course  of  the  Bishop  in  his  Diocess.  But  to  form  a  just  estimate 
of  the  Sermon — to  see  its  "merciful  adaptation"  to  accomplish  its 
charitable  end — let  us  take  a  more  extended  view  of  the  circumstances 
that  gave  birth  to  the  Bishop's  most  extraordinary  performance.  The 
mere  consecration  of  Bishop  Johns  was  an  incident  only ;  the  Sermon 
was  consequent  only  in  the  order  of  time.  We  must  look  for  its  caus- 
ation below  the  surface  of  the  events  then  transpiring;  and  to  give  the 
subject  its  proper  illustration,  we  must  go  back,  we  must  look  around; 
we  must,  by  the  power  of  sympathy,  transfer  ourselves  from  our  own 
position  and  stand  where  Bishop  Ives  stood,  that  our  eye  may  trace 
the  images  which  disturbed  and  perplexed,  and  fired  and  cooled,  alter- 
nately, the  Bishop's  mind ;  we  must  catch  the  inspiration  of  his  fervid 
eloquence,  while,  like  a  Prophet  of  old,  he  gives  out  the  shadowy 
images  of  coming  events — events  yet  in  the  future,  but  painted  on  the 
broad  canvass  of  rational  conception,  which  we  may  trace,  though 
unblessed  with  prophetic  vision. 

It  is  known,  doubtless,  to  the  intelligent  reader,  that  in  addition  to 
that  subdued  tone  which,  ever  since  the  haughty  Queen  Elizabeth, 


11 

whom  the  Bishop  in  his  appendix  quotes  with  so  much  complacency, 
took  it  into  lier  head  to  strip  the  Clergy  of  England  of  every  thing 
except  the  ministering  God's  Avord  and  tiie  Sacraments,  and,  in  return 
for  their  submission,  agreed  to  rule  all  estates  and  degrees  committed 
to  her  charge  by  God,  whether  they  be  ecclesiastical  or  temporal,  and 
to  restrain  with  the  civil  sword  the  stubborn  and  evil  doers ;  the  voice 
of  discontent,  as  well  as  dissent,  has  grated  harsh  thunder  on  the 
churchman's  ear.  The  Church  of  England,  being  an  essential  ele- 
ment, a  part  and  parcel  of  the  Government,  the  Church  is  necessarily 
involved  in  all  political  questions  as  well  as  ecclesiastical.  Whatever 
may  be  the  popular  will,  they  have  for  the  time  being  transferred  their 
original  and  inherent  sovereignty  to  a  Constitution  which,  while  it 
was  wrung  from  the  hands  of  their  rulers  at  different  periods  of  their 
history,  nevertheless  secured  to  the  subjects  an  eminent  degree  of  con- 
stitutional liberty;  such  as,  perhaps,  no  nation  on  earth  ever  enjoyed 
under  the  prerogative  of  the  crown  and  the  privileges  of  an  aristocracy. 
But  notwithstanding,  the  British  nation  presents  an  anomaly  for  which 
it  is  difficult  for  the  most  enlightened  statesmen  to  account — a  mixture 
of  spiritual  despotism  and  civil  freedom. 

The  parties  disaffected  towards  the  Government  in  its  radical 
principles  are,  perhaps,  few  in  number ;  and  they,  as  in  all  Govern- 
ments, may  be,  for  aught  we  knov/,  of  the  baser  sort,  at  least  in  the 
estimation  of  the  '^  powers  that  be."  But  they  are  few  in  comparison 
with  the  great  body  of  the  nation,  who,  while  they  seek^redress  as  far 
as  they  have  the  constitutional  power,  are  as  loyal  to  the  Q-ueen  as  her 
most  humbled  and  obliged  Bishops  and  Archbishops,  without  money 
and  without  price,  without  the  regalia  of  office  or  the  ensigns  of  royal 
favor.  Among  these  are  Catholics,  and  dissenters  in  general-;  not 
those  who  rebel  against  the  Government,  but  who  dissent  from  the 
authority  of  Bishops  and  other  Clergy  to  take  the  keeping  of  their 
judgment,  their  consciences  and  their  souls  out  of  the  hands  of  indi- 
viduals where  the  God  of  nature  and  of  grace  has  placed  it.  But  yet 
they  pay  their  taxes,  they  pay  their  Church  dues — not  without  com- 
plaint, but  they  pay  them — although  they  see  themselves  oppressed 
and  burdened,  and  ground  down  to  misery  and  poverty,  to  support 
a  bloated  establishment  called  a  Church  establishment,  which,  were  it 
riot  for  the  golden  chain  that  binds  it  to  the  throne,  would  fall  to  pieces 
by  the  repulsiveness  of  its  own  materials,  or  dwindle  away  to  an 
invisible  or  indivisible  unit.     As  the  only  hope  of  relief  is  from  the 


m 

House  of  (l^ommons,  that  being  the  popular  branch  of  the  Government, 
religion  has  become  so  involved  with  the  popular  elections  that  chris- 
tians of  all  sects,  as  well  as  infidels,  have,  in  these  elections,  been 
found  in  union — not  to  subvert  the  Government,  but  to  carry  the 
election.  However  diversified  their  views  may  be  on  every  other 
subject,  they  are  united  in  this :  that  there  ought  to  be  a  reform 
at  least  in  the  ecclesiastical  machinery  that  grinds  them  so  heavily. 
It  would  be  folly  in  the  extreme  for  those  who  are  oppressed,  to  hope 
for  any  relaxation  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown  or  the  privileges  of 
the  Church,  (especially  when  the  Q,ueen  is  daily. admonished  that  her 
throne  stands  or  falls  with  the  establishment,)  unless,  by  a  formidable 
array  of  numbers,  the  subjects  of  the  Government  can  wring  from  their 
death-grasp  the  reluctant  concessions  which  they  demand.  They 
have  already  accomplished  much — as  much  as  the  times  and  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  country,  perhaps,  justify.  The  dread  of  Roman- 
ism, which,  notwithstanding  the  long  oppression  of  Catholics,  has 
increased  to  a  most  alarming  extent,  has  arrested  the  progress  ol 
reform.  The  great  body  of  the  nation  have  been,  and  ever  will  be  a 
religious  people  ;  and  while  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  establishment  have 
been  working  the  wires  of  Government,  the  Catholics  and  dissenters, 
having  no  part  nor  lot  in  the  matter,  have  confined  themselves  to  their 
appropriate  work  of  spreading  their  religion,  whether  true  or  false ; 
while  a  refined  species  of  infidelity,  affecting  the  Church  as  well  as 
those  out  of  it,  has  been  substituted  in  the  place  of  vital  piety;  and  a 
decent  conformity  of  the  exterior  man  to  the  periodical  services  of  the 
Church,  constitutes,  to  an  alarming  extent,  the  distinctive  character 
of  a  churchman  as  well  as  of  a  dissenter.  Honorable  exceptions  are 
found;  more  numerous  than,  perhaps,  have  existed  for  many  years; 
but  still,  the  fact  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  political  contest  between 
those  in  the  Church  establishment  and  out,  that  gangrene  of  piety  has 
preyed  upon  the  vitals  of  the  Church  as  well  as  of  the  dissenters. — 
Some  new  adjustment  of  the  union  between  the  Church  and  the  State, 
is  imperiously  demanded  and  impatiently  looked  for.  The  English 
hierarchy  may  continue  to  keep  the  fires  of  the  volcano  pent  up,  by 
the  stern  arm  of  civil  rule;  but  as  the  smoke  and  dust  precede  an 
eruption,  just  so  fure  will  the  outbreaks  of  popular  fury,  which  are 
frequently  recurring,  pour  the  melted  lava  over  the  plain,  unless  those 
who  can  do  so  will  meet  the  crisis  in  the  spirit  of  honorable  compro- 
mise and  conciliation. 


IS 

A  proud  and  overbearing-  priesthood  may  continue  to  sport  with 
the  miseries  of  an  oppressed  people,  and  trifle  with  the  elements  of  the 
human  constitution  which  are  at  work  in  the  British  nation ;  but  the 
time  will  come  when,  perhaps  too  late,  they  may  see  their  folly.  So 
sure  as  human  nature  is  the  same ;  so  sure  as  the  lundaraental  princi- 
ples of  man's  nature  are  the  gift  of  God  ;  so  sure  as  the  love  of  freedom 
is  the  constituent  element  of  the  English  character — just  so  sure  will 
the  nation  be  one  day  as  free  in  their  ecclesiastical  as  they  are  in  their 
civil  Government.  The  stern  arm  of  civil  authority  may  do  what 
the  authority  of  the  Church  never  has  done,  and  never,  in  any  age  or 
nation,  could  do — smother  the  fires  of  religious  freedom.  But,  ere 
long,  the  crisis  will  come  ;  the  issue  will  be  made  up,  and  the  demands 
ot  justice  must  be  met; — if  in  the  true  spirit  of  primitive  Apostolical 
Christianity,  the  Church  and  the  nation  may  be  saved  ;  if  with  scorn 
and  contempt,  the  giant  of  freedom,  stung  and  chafed,  and  galled,  by 
worse  than  Philistian  mockery,  sightless  with  rage  but  still  mighty, 
will  lay  hold  of  the  columns  that  support  the  fabric  of  Government, 
and  with  the  last  convulsive  throe,  pull  down  ruin  on  millions  of  the 
oppressed  and  the  oppressors — a  ruin  and  a  desolation,  beneath  the 
rubbish  of  which  he  may  find  his  own  sepulchre,  without  a  Priest  or 
a  ruler  to  write  his  epitaph  ! 

In  view  of  such  appalling  disasters,  well  might  the  heart  of  a  Bishop 
fail !  Well  might  any  man,  if  soft  humanity  ever  touched  his  breast ; 
if  ever  pity  moistened  his  eye ;  if  ever,  in  the  deep  heavings  of  his  soul, 
he  has  sent  a  prayer  to  Heaven  to  avert  impending  evils  from  our 
guilty,  sin-stricken  world — well  might  he,  in  view  of  these  calamities, 
gather  strength  and  fervor,  from  bitterness  and  anguish,  when  he 
prays:  "From  all  blindness  of  heart,  from  pride,  vain  glory  and  hy- 
pocrisy, from  env}'',  hatred  and  malice,  and  all  uncharitableness — 
Good  Lord  deliver  us ! " 

That  the  case  of  the  English  establishment  is  somewhat  as  we  have 
represented,  we  learn  from  the  writings  of  churchmen  themselves. 
We  have  but  little  knowledge  of  the  science  of  Government,  much 
less  of  the  secret  springs  which  move  the  political  machinery  of  nations. 
We  know  some  little  of  human  nature,  and  for  several  years  we  have 
been  silently  watching  the  movements  of  the  Church  in  England  and 
the  United  States.  Our  information  is  neither  extensive,  nor  perhaps 
definite  enough  to  make  up  an  opinion  as  to  the  result.  But  that  the 
issue  is  now  made  up  between  the  Church  of  England  and  dissent, 


14 

noiie  can  deny.  What  mean  such  expressions  as  these  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic:  "Unholy  alliance  of  intidels,  papists  and  dissenters"/ 
What  mean  the  cant  and  studied  speech  of  those  who  appeal  so  implor- 
ingly to  the  American  Church  '-to  defend  her  motlier"?  liut  we 
affirm  that  the  issue  is  made  up;  and  if  there  be  any  essential  connec- 
tion between  the  Church  of  England  and  her  dissent,  and  the  Avxeri- 
can  Church  and  her  dissent,  we  want  to  know  and  prepare  for  it ; 
that  it  come  not  suddenly  upon  us,  unawares. 

The  wisest  and  best  men  of  all  parties,  in  tlie  Church  and  out  of 
the  Church,  are  preparing  to  meet  the  crisis ;  and  there  are  many 
projectors  and  projects.  Some,  nothing  will  satisfy  but  a  disruption 
of  the  Church  and  State  alliance.  Others  go  for  a  new  adjustment  of 
the  union — a  reform  on  the  basis  of  enlightened  christian  principles, 
not  according  to  the  ancient  doctrine,  ''no  Bishop  no  King;"  but 
according  to  the  true  nature  and  genius  of  Christianity,  as  taught  by 
the  Son  of  God  and  so  beautifully  illustrated  in  the  lives  and  acts  of 
the  Apostles — a  religion  which,  if  it  does  not  accommodate  itself  to  the 
varied  ^'tastes^^  of  men,  shows  us  a  most  beautiful  adaptation  to  their 
wants  under  every  form  of  Government,  absolute  or  constitutional, 
despotic  or  free — a  religion  v/hich  may  live,  and  flourish,  and  glow  in 
pristine  purity,  in  the  bosom  of  a  Russian  serf  as  well  as  in  that  of  an 
American  freeman—  a  religion  which  is,  at  all  times  and  in  all  places, 
the  "same  one  and  only  one  true  and  saving"  power,  which,  in  the 
beautiful  language  of  an  English  bard,  says  to  all,  high  and  low,  rich 
and  poor,  bond  and  free, 

Who  does  the  best  his  circumstance  allows. 
Does  well,  acts  nobly — angels  could  no  more  ; — 

A  divine  system  which,  when  isolated  from  the  various  macliineries  of 
human  government,  stands  alone,  bearing  "twelve  manner  of  fruits, 
whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nation."  Such  was  Christianity 
when  Paul  planted  it  in  the  various  cities  of  Asia,  Africa,  in  the  Ro- 
man empire,  and  in  the  British  Isle.  Such  it  stood,  rooted  and  groimded 
in  the  doctrines  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  until  the  dispensation  of  its 
fruits  became  the  exclusive  province  of  weak  and  fallible  men,  who, 
by  a  most  strange  infatuation,  took  it  into  their  heads  that  God  had 
made  angels  of  them  and  had  placed  them,  with  flaming  swords, 
pointing  every  way,  to  guard  the  tree  of  life.  And  because,  forsooth, 
men  would  gather  the  fruit  and  eat  thereof,  in  spite  of  their  spiritual 
weapons,  which  they  never  had  only  in  their  vain  imagination,  they 


w 

dno  lip  the  tree  as  far  as  they  could;  they  cutoff  the  branches  and 
transplanted  the  naked  trunk  in  the  Palace  Garden,  as  a  soil  more 
cono-enial  than  that  which  God  had  chosen,  fast  by  his  own  eternal 
throne.  And  there,  in  the  Palace  Garden,  to  this  day  it  stands,  if  not 
a  leafless,  lifeless  trunk,  a  vine  of  Sodom,  yielding  most  abundant 
crops  of  ^^horrid  cnormities.^^  While  we  live,  we  shall  ever  devoutly 
pray,  from  such  a  curse  "Good  Lord  deliver  us  !" 

No,  say  the  learned  men  at  Oxford,  let  us  dig  about  and  dung  it, 
and  if  il  bear  fruit,  well ;  if  not,  cut  it  down.  But,  before  you  do  this, 
we  will  prepare  to  meet  the  crisis.  If  we  must  lose  our  right  arm,  we 
must  strengthen  the  left.  If  civil  government,  which  is  alike  ordained 
of  God ;  if  rulers  and  princes  (once  intended  by  God  as  nursing 
fathers  and  mothers)  must  resign  their  headship  as  defenders  of  the 
faith,  and  take  their  places  in  the  Church  of  God,  according  to  the 
relative  merit  of  personal  virtue  and  holiness,  we  must  go  back  to 
ancient  Christianity;  we  must  take  the  spiritual  '^  sword  and  axe" — 
the  one  to  guard  the  vine  of  Sodom,  the  other  to  cut  down  and  grub 
up  every  sprig  of  the  Apostolical  root  which,  owing  to  its  indestructi- 
ble nature,  we  can  never  kill.  By  a  new  impropriation  of  all  authority, 
of  all  good  and  all  salvation  to  us  and  our  successors  for  ever,  "  Princes 
and  rulers,  and  men  of  every  rank  will  come  to  bow  down  to  us,  and 
then  we  ourselves  shall  become  rulers  and  princes,  and  our  diocesses 
shall  be  principalities."  To  stop  the  allegory,  let  us  ask  what  this 
parable  meaneth? 

It  is  known  to  the  intelligent  reader  that,  in  view  of  the  loss  of 
civil  power,  to  stop  the  overflowings  of  dissent  and  Romanism  m  En- 
gland, which  must  ensue  by  a  disruption  of  the  Church  establishment 
from  the  throne,  some  of  the  most  learned  and  ingenius  men  in  the 
English  Church  have  laid  the  scheme  to  engraft  on  the  English  Church 
that  spiritual  despotism  which  seems  to  have  grown  up  spontaneously 
in  the  very  first  ages  after  the  Apostles.  When  usurping  Prelates, 
like  heathen  priests,  to  increase  their  power  and  authority  and  enlarge 
their  prerogatives,  being  destitute  of  the  spiritual  power  which  the 
Apostles  had,  of  which  they  gave  witness  in  the  bestowment  of  spirit- 
ual gifts  and  the  immediate  punishment  of  the  contumacious,  when 
such  punishment  became  a  matter  of  prime  necessity  to  meet  some 
alarming  exigency,  they,  the  Bishops,  devised  the  device  of  making 
mysteries  of  God's  institutions  and  revelations.  Baptism  was  made 
a  mystery ;  confirmation,  a  mystery ;  the  Lord's  supper,  a  mystery ; 


marriag-e,  a  myslery ;  the  bestowment  of  grace,  a  mystery  ;  and  ordi- 
nation, the  greatest  of  all  mysteries ;  into  which  none  but  the  Bishop 
was  permitted  to  inquire,  unless  by  his  most  gracious  leave.  This  we 
say  is  the  system  of  despotism,  with  all  its  kindred  vagaries,  that  the 
learned  men  at  Oxford  would  engraft  on  the  English  Church  as  an 
available  substitute  for  the  authority  of  civil  rule,  to  stop  dissent  and 
Romanism  in  Enoland,  and  save  a  rotten  establishment.  ^-m^mtmmif^Hi^' 
And  this  they  have  attempted  to  do,  not  in  the  character  of  enlight- 
ened statesmen  nor  of  enlightened  christians,  by  giving  the  outlines  of 
the  plan  and  the  details  as  far  as  the  exigences  of  the  case  may  be 
anticipated;  but  like  artful  politicians,  who,  keeping  the  great  princi- 
ples out  of  sight,  proclaim  they  are  no  abstractionists,  and  begin  by 
tinkering  at  the  odds  and  ends  of  some  favorite  scheme,  until  the 
nation  is  committed  to  its  support.  Isor  do  they  come  out  like  honest 
architects,  with  a  matured  draft  and  an  accurate  admeasurement  of 
space,  and  a  safe  estimate  of  cost,  to  meet  the  liberal  views  of  an  unsus- 
pecting employer,  but  as  a  skilful  projector,  who,  for  fear  of  awaking  the 
jealousy  of  a  too  rigid  economy  or  the  stronger  principles  of  avarice, 
begins  by  shewing  the  plan  of  the  vestibule,  and  asking  the  pitiful  sum 
of  a  few  thousand  to  begin  witli,  wliich  it  would  be  meanness  not  to 
appropriate;  and  when  the  foundation  is  once  laid  and  there  is  now 
no  way  of  retreat,  rising  in  demand  in  the  increased  ratio  of  the  one 
million  to  a  thousand.  As  one  million  is  to  one  thousand,  so  is  one 
thousand  to  a  million.  One  thousand  will  do  the  work,  but  it  will  take 
a  million  to  complete  it.  The  Oxford  men  are  not  only  men  of  learn- 
ing, but  they  are  far  from  being  learned  fools.  They  are  philosophers 
in  the  highest  and  most  comprehensive  sense  of  that  word  as  a  scien- 
tific term.  They  are  deeply  read  in  human  nature,  as  well  as  in  the 
writings  of  antiquity.  They  know  that  the  world  is  governed  by 
compromise,  conciliation,  concession,  and  insinuation,  as  well  as  by 
attraction  and  cohesion ;  that  the  discordant  elements  of  nature  only 
required  to  be  adjusted  by  the  hand  divine,  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos. 
They  know  that  heat  and  cold,  moisture  and  dryness,  fluid  and  solid, 
might  be  made  to  dwell  together  in  unity,  could  some  master-spirits 
brood  over  the  face  of  the  great  deep,  arrange  the  materials  and  fix  the 
bounds  of  their  habitation.  They  know  that  the  lever  must  compro- 
mise with  the  fulcrum,  that  the  mass  may  be  moved ;  that  the  wedge 
itself,  with  all  its  tremendous  power,  must  enter  by  conciliation  and 
insinuation.    Accordingly  they  have  hiinimcred  their  scheme  into  the 


ir 

form  of  an  oiiiteriiig  wedge;  they  have  ground  it  and  polished  it  to  an 
imperceptible  edge,  and  now,  without  hammer  or  mallet,  or  the  sound 
of  a  tool,  they  are  driving  it  imperceptibly  into  the  heart  of  the  English 
nation  ; — and  but  for  the  poor,  despised  dissenters,  those  ever  watchful 
guardians  of  liberty,  the  British  nation  would,  ere  long,  be,  if  not  now 
quietly  slumbering  in  the  tranquility  of  a  pure,  unmixed  spiritual 
despotism,  in  its  most  malignant  form.  Their  system  is  so  framed, 
that  it  accommodates  itself  to  the  religious  prejudices  of  all  ranks  of 
men,  however  diversified  their  "tastes"  or  opposite  their  qualities,  so 
they  are  not  dissenters  or  Romanists  ;  and  even  these  are  not  left  out 
in  the  details  of  the  scheme.  Their  profound  erudition  enables  them 
to  control,  if  not  originate  the  entire  literature  of  the  Church  and  the 
nation.  With  the  great  lever  of  the  press,  they  are  acting  on  the  whole 
nation,  always  compromising  its  length  to  the  levity  or  ponderosity  of 
the  mass  to  be  moved.  They  have  abstruse  science  for  the  thoughtful 
and  inquisitive,  and  light  literature  for  the  gay  and  polite  ;  leaden  ser- 
mons and  tracts  for  the  grave,  and  songs  and  ballads  for  the  gypsies; 
primitive  Christianity  for  the  puritan ;  evangelical  piety  for  the  dis- 
senter ;  ancient  Christianity  for  the  churchman,  and  old  and  venerated 
names  for  the  catholic.  Such  is  their  power  over  the  varied  depart- 
ment of  mind,  that,  like  the  men  of  Ephesus,  the  wondering  multitude 
lift  up  their  voices  and  say,  the  gods  are  com.e  down  unto  us  in  the 
likeness  of  men ;  and  they  call  them  by  the  names,  not  of  heathen 
gods,  but  of  the  Lord  Jehovah — holy  fathers,  holy  confessors,  princes, 
priests,  and  kings.  And  if  the  established  priesthood  do  not  bring  oxen 
and  garlands  unto  the  gates  to  sacrifice  with  the  people,  it  is  because 
the  Bishops  of  Oxford  and  Exeter*  exert  the  salutary  injluence  of 
their  office  to  check  their  folly  and  extravagance ;  or  because  some 
desperate,  hopeless  dissenter,  who  had  no  hand  in  originating  the 
scheme,  and  fears  that  his  own  scheme  is  tottering,  strips  off  the  livery 
of  heaven,  which  these  men  have  stolen  to  serve  the  Church  in ; 
exposes  their  nakedness,  that  the  people  may  see  that  they  are  men  of 
like  passions  with  themselves. 

But  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  Sermon?  Much  every  way ; 
but  chiefly  and  mainly  because  it  is  the  head  and  front,  the  body  and 
tail  of  the  Sermon.  There  is  the  same  connexion  between  them,  as 
between  the  sprig  and  the  tree  from  which  it  grows ;  the  same  connex- 


*  See  J^ote  to  Bishop  Ives'  Sermon. 

*3 


18 

ion  that  there  was  between  the  Shadow  of  tlie  degrees  and  the  sun 
dial  ot  Ahaz.  If  the  Sermon  has  no  connexion  with  the  state  of  the 
English  Church  and  dissent,  "its  bones  are  marrowless,"  and  there  is 
no  speculation  in  its  eyes.  And  to  say  the  least  of  it,  it  is  an  ingeni- 
ously contrived  hobgoblin  ;  so  true,  however,  to  nature,  that  unless  the 
Bishops  were  drowsy  and  did  not  see  the  fairy  thing,  they  must  have 
taken  it  for  a  fancy  sketch.  If  the  Bishop  applies  his  statements  to  the 
Churches  in  the  United  States,  then  they  are  false  in  fact,  fi.lse  in  form, 
and  false  in  almost  every  particular.  These  Churches  are  not  dis- 
senters ;  they  are  not  semi-infidels ;  they  do  submit  as  a  body  to  the 
authority  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  Gospel,  at  least  as  fully  as  church- 
men in  general  do ;  and  their  case  is  not  more  desperate  than  the  case 
of  those  who  claim  to  be  in  a  state  of  ccrtian  salvation  because  they 
are  churchmen. 

We  admonished  the  reader,  in  the  outset,  that  we  must  not  look  to 
the  circumstances  immediately  connected  with  this  extraordinary 
Sermon.  It  has  a  deeper  and  more  concealed  root,  which  it  is  our 
duty  to  dig  into.  The  Sermon  certainly  affects  to  appeal  to  private 
judgment  and  interpretation,  so  far  as  the  Bishop  has  left  the  inter- 
pretation out  of  his  notes  and  appendix.  We  will  not  go  behind 
the  acts  of  the  Bishop  to  interrogate  his  motives;  nor  will  we  torture 
his  acts  to  extort  an  answer  of  our  own  framing.  We  will  duly  ac- 
knowledge and  desire  to  feel  all  the  restraints  of  legitimate  interpreta- 
tion. Some  things  we  may  dare  to  suggest,  because  we  have  no  testi- 
mony such  as  will  be  satisfactory  to  one  who  does  not  see  the  Bishop's 
true  position. 

The  relation  existing  between  the  Church  of  England  and  Pro- 
testant Episcopal  Church  is  so  intimate,  that,  in  the  tropical  language 
of  their  writers,  one  is  the  "mother"  the  other  "the  hopeful  daughter." 
The  metaphor  has,  in  some  instances,  been  carried  to  a  ridiculous 
excess;  and  the  expressions  of  deep  solicitude  for  each  other,  would 
justify  the  belief  that  some  high-churchmen  are  really  afraid  to  trust 
the  daughter  out  of  sight,  lest  she  might  sell  the  ornaments  of  a 
mother's  purity,  by  too  much  familiarity  with  dissent.  From  others 
you  migiit  take  the  impression  that,  though  old  enough,  she  is  a 
ricketty  child,  and  must  not  be  allowed  to  go  out  alone.  While  others 
view  her  as  being  yet  bound  by  ligaments,  the  pulsations  of  which 
have  not  yet  ceased  to  diffuse  the  life-blood  through  her  system;  and 
that  if  such  cords  as  Bishop  Doane  and  Bishop  Ives  were  cut  asunder, 


she  would  die  an  uiuuiluial  death.  Writers  on  tlie  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  take  a  more  rational  and  consistent  view  of  her,  as  a  noble 
monument  of  the  wisdom  of  those  pious  men  who  reared  her  up  from 
her  infancy,  and  rejoice  that,  in  the  event  of  the  going  down  of  the 
establishment  in  England,  she  stands  on  firm  footing.  Such  being 
tlie  view  entertained  by  churchmen,  it  cannot  be  but  that  a  churchman 
in  America  constantly  associates  in  his  mind  the  two  Churches;  espe- 
cially when  it  is  remembered  they  are,  as  to  cathohc  unity,  one  and  the 
same.  A  daughter  who  had  just  been  reading  the  painful  story  of  a 
mother's  calamities,  might  just  as  easily  have  lost  sight  of  them  in  a 
detail  of  family  afflictions,  as  for  Bishop  Ives  to  have  composed  a 
Sermon  on  the  difficulties  of  a  Bishop  and  the  afflictions  of  the  Church, 
without  borrowing  his  most  glowing  images  from  the  afflicted  state  of 
the  Church  in  England.  As  before  remarked,  we  must  place  ourselves 
as  nearly  as  we  can  in  the  position  of  the  Bishop,  to  see  the  scope  and 
comprehension  of  his  Sermon.  After  our  foregoing  remarks,  the 
Sermon  will  help  us  to  do  so  in  some  good  degree. 

The  Bishop,  then,  must  have  composed  his  Sermon  in  full  view  of 
the  present  distracted,  dissenting  world  ;  in  view  of  the  rapid  progress 
of  Romanism  and  dissent  in  the  United  States,  and  especially  in  North 
Carolina;  and  in  full  view  of  the  difficulties  and  embarrassments  he 
had  thrown  around  himself,  in  taking  the  oversight  of  his  flock  in 
North-Carolina.  Then  the  Sermon,  in  some  respects,  is  such  as  we 
might  have  expected  from  mortified  clerical  ambition.  He  has,  most 
signally,  failed  in  bringing  his  Church  out  of  the  wilderness,  in  North- 
Carolina  ; — not  for  want  of  the  most  indefatigable  zeal,  the  most  tmtir- 
ing  industry  on  his  part.  All  who  know  the  Bishop,  know  that  he 
resembles  more  a  universal  Apostolical  Bishop  than  a  modern  Dio- 
cesan, or  an  ancient  Pastoral  Bishop,  from  his  abundant  labors  and 
visitations.  His  diocess  extends  from  the  Atlantic,  over  the  Blue  Ridge 
and  the  Alleganies,  to  the  Tennessee  line ;  contains  forty-three  thousand 
eight  hundred  square  miles — nearly  as  large  as  England  ;  with  a  scat- 
tered population  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand  one  hundred 
souls,  and  twenty-five  clergy.  To  have  fulfilled  his  ministry,  he  must 
have  crowded  ten  years'  labor  into  one.  But  he  has  nearly  worn 
himself  out,  literally,  in  the  work.  The  last  conventional  report,  if  we 
remember,  gave  one  thousand  four  hundred  members  of  the  Church. 
We  have  followed  the  Bishop,  in  North-Carolina  almost  to  the  seaboard, 
where,  about  ten  years  ago,  we  labored  in  his  diocess,  and  often  heard. 


20 

not  the  Episcopalians,  but  the  Methodists  speak  of  him  in  the  highest 
terms  as  an  eloquent,  zealous  minister.     But  the  Bishop  has  been 
exceedingly,  disappointed,  in  the  result  of  his  labors ;  he  feels  it  most 
sensibly,  most  painfully.     But  the  Bishop  sees  notliing  defective  in  his 
Apostolical  organization ;  nothing  injudicious  in  his  own  course,  or 
defective  in  his  own  laborious  ministry.     He  must  assign  some  cause 
for  the  failure  ;  for  it  is  an  implied  censure  upon  the  wisdom  of  God's 
most  -'wonderful  adaptation"  of  the  Gospel  to  meet  the  necessities  of 
dying,  perishing  sinners ;  if  some  cause,  which  was  not  foreseen  and 
provided  against  in  this  plan,  cannot  be  brought  to  light.     But  the 
Bishop,  not  being  able  to  assign  any  better  cause,  fastens  it  on  the 
poor  dissenters,  who,  perhaps,  have  done  more  towards  adding  to  his 
Church  than  the  labors  of  liis  twenty-five  clerical  assistants.     We 
could  inform  the  Bishop  where  the  great  error  lies,  if  his  insatiable 
cupidity  of  instructing  others  did  not  render  him  inaccessible  to  the 
teaching  of  unauthorized  men.     But  the  Bishop  was  chafed  and  irrita- 
ted, and  for  aught  we  know  dyspeptic,  for  his  Sermon  seems  to  be 
marked  with  high  nervous  excitability,  under  the  painful  influence  of 
which  our  difficulties  are  magnified  beyond  all  proportion.     He  was 
called  on  to  preach  at  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Johns,  assistant  of 
Bishop  Mead,  in  Virginia.     Now  the  Rev'd  Bishop  elect  and  the  Rev'd 
Bishop  Ives  are  as  far  apart,  in  their  'private  views  and  some  of  their 
avowed  sentiments,  as  a  dissenter  is  from  a  high- churchman.     The 
reader  is  referred  to  the  address  of  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Johns,  to  his  former 
charge  in  the  city  of  Baltimore.     The  Rev'd  Mr.  Johns  left  a  flourish- 
ing church  in  Baltimore,  of  whom  no  churchman  need  be  ashamed, 
unless  he  hates  dissenters   as  if  they  were  leprous.     Under  the  charge 
of  Bishop  ]\looRE  and  Bishop  Mead,  the  Church  in  Yirginia  was 
comparatively  undisturbed,  and  at  peace  with  themselves  and  dissent- 
ers ;  and  the  Church  was  happy  and  prosperous.     It  must  have  been 
truly  mortifying  to  the  Bishop — not  that  it  was  so,  but  that  things  were 
so  different  in  his  own  diocess.     Now,  to  heal  the  wounds  of  his  morti- 
fication, he  fixes  the  censure  upon  dissenters  who  had  blocked  up  his 
way,  and  like  the  Boar  out  of  the  wood,  had  spoiled  his  vine.     He 
being  an  experienced  Bishop,  and  Mr.  Johns  being  an  inexperienced 
Bishop,  it  was  a  most  fit  occasion,  if  possible,  to  cure  him  of  his  suspected 
fondness  for  dissenters ;  and  to  assure  him  that  the  most  efToctual  way 
to  approve  himself  unto  God,  would  be  to  break  amity  with  dissent; 
deal  out  to  it— if  not  thundering  anathemas,  at  least  the  heaviest,  dead- 


21 

liest  blows.  Now  we  are  not  acqiuunted  with  llie  ilev'd  Mr.  Joints  ; 
but  if  lie  be  the  man  that  his  writings  seem  to  indicate,  he  must  have 
thanked  the  Bishop  for  his  good  intentions^  and  good-naturedly  joined 
with  others  in  asking  for  the  publication  of  the  Sermon,  hoping  that, 
as  there  was  much  ambiguity  in  the  Sermon,  it  would  be  most  favor- 
ably interpreted  by  those  most  interested  in  it.  But  if  Bishop  Johns 
and  the  other  clergy  were  aware  of  the  purpose  of  the  Bishop,  to  add 
his  explanatory  notes,  and  to  send  it  forth  as  a  suitable  tract  for  the 
times,  we  have  but  little  gratitude  for  their  friendship  on  less  imposing 
occasions ;  and  we  further  say,  that  while  we  hear  the  notes  of  friend- 
ship quavering  from  their  lips,  we  feel  the  sword  going  to  our  vitals. 
Let  Shimei  curse  us,  if  so  the  Lord  will,  for  our  supposed  rebellion 
against  our  lawful  king ;  we  can  forgive  him ;  but  we  trust  to  be 
delivered  from  the  tender  mercies  of  a  Joab,  lest  we  die  with  malice 
in  our  heart. 

We  now  distinctly  affirm,  as  our  most  matured  private  judgment, 
that  if  the  Bishops  and  clergy  asked  for  the  publication  of  the  Sermon, 
with  the  notes  and  appendix,  as  it  now  appears  for  distribution,  it  is 
one  of  those  pious  frauds  which  even  good  men  have  sanctioned  in 
their  corporate  capacity,  but  of  which  they  would  be  ashamed  to  have 
originated  on  their  individual  responsibility ;  that  in  so  doing,  they 
have  affixed  their  official  sanction  to  the  most  absurd  and  impro- 
bable tales  against  their  fellow-christians ;  and  by  the  circulation  of 
the  tract,  in  its  present  form,  have  assisted  in  destroying  that  jjeace 
with  mankind,  which  they  solemnly  promised  to  promote,  as  far 
as  in  them  lay. 

The  only  apology  our  ingenuity  can  devise,  is  that  they  knew  not 
what  they  did.  They  asked  for  the  Sermon,  as  they  heard  it  glowing 
from  the  speaker  with  all  his  fervid  eloquence ;  that,  as  is  often  the 
case,  under  such  circumstances,  when  appeals  are  made  to  our  reli- 
gious sentiments  and  feelings,  they  were  affected  more  by  what  the 
speaker  sai^Z  than  what  he  meant;  that,  consequently,  they  desired 
the  Sermon,  and  not  its  explanations,  as  the  Bishop  has  given  them, 
with  his  silly  tale  about  the  Methodists.  The  pamphlet,  as  published, 
we  look  upon  as  a  tract  for  the  times,  and  shall  so  treat  it. 

Had  the  Sermon  been  the  production  of  some  newly  initiated  cox- 
comb, we  would,  in  pity,  have  passed  it  by.  Had  it  come  from  Dr. 
TAt-LOR,  the  first  fruits  of  Bishop  Ives'  labor  in  North-Carolina,  we 
would  have  let  it  pass  for  what  it  is  worth.     But  the  Sermon  comes  to  us 


22 

\iiider  the  official  sanction,  not  only  of  Bibiliop  lvi:s,  but  of  the  Bishops 
and  Clergy  present  at  the  consecration.  It  has  been  sent  abroad,  with 
the  spirit's  wincr,  over  our  poor  earth,  to  speed  on  the  too  tardy  wheels 
of  a  ri2:heous  retribution  ;  to  appease  the  manes  of  Ghostly  Power,  and 
avenge  the  deep  damnation  of  this  taking  off.  It  has  come  to  us  in 
questionable  shape; — we  have  dared  to  speak  to  it,  if  perchance  it 
might  reveal  the  secrets  of  its  prison-house ;  and  although  at  its  reve- 
lations our  blood  did  not  curdle  in  our  veins,  nor  our  eyes  start  in  their 
sockets,  nor  our  hair  stand  on  end-r-yet  we  could  not  forbear  our  pity, 
when  we  heard  its  sepulchral  tones  relate  the  story  of  its  diflicul- 
ties,  speaking  so  imploringly  ;  and  we  involuntarily  exclaimed,  Poor 
ghost !  for  well  we  knew  that,  when  the  shrill  notes  of  the  wakeful 
sentinel  thnt  tells  of  the  coming  morn,  stiould  fall  on  its  ear,  it  would 
retire  with  the  first  stream  of  light,  and  seek  companionship  with  its 
kindred  ff hosts  and  kindred  hosts  ;  and  should  ever  i^5  5/m<^e,  that 
now  so  nobly  bears  the  "Banner  of  the  Cross,"  deign  to  visit  our 
chamber  and  leave  his  caveat,  we  will  prepare  to  meet  at  Philipi ; 
and  should  it  be  our  sad  misfortune  there  to  see  the  noble  array  of 
Scripture  facts  and  arguments,  which  we  are  prepared  to  bring  into 
the  field,  overwhelmed  by  the  superior  force  of  authority — we  shall 
have  left  to  ns  the  last  resort  of  an  American  citizen,  if  not  of  a  Roman 
freedman,  to  entrench  ourselves  behind  the  impresfnable  fortress  which 
has  been  so  successfully  reared  by  freemens'  noblest  sons*  ;  we  shall 
at  least  leave  but  this  last  resort  for  the  Bishop,  that  is :  to  put  us, 
together  with  the  learned  defence  of  a  Vestry  in  his  own  diocess,  into 
the  Index  Purgatory,  as  too  deeply  tainted  with  damnable  heresy  to 
be  read  by  the  faithful. 

Having  thus  shewn  the  object  of  the  Sermon,  namely,  to  excite  the 
minds  of  churchmen  asrainst  dissenters  ;  we  will  now  show  how  admi- 
rably  the  Bishop  has  preserved  the  unity  of  his  design  : 

To  accomplisli  this  christian  design,  and  to  carry  out  the  enter- 
prize  most  successfully,  the  mere  narration  of  facts  was  not  sufficient, 
though  supported  by  Episcopal  authority.  The  Bishop  knew  full 
well  that  men's  hearts  have  something  to  do  with  their  religion,  as  well 
as  their  heads;  he  disdains  net  to  employ  all  the  art  of  the  most  suc- 

*  Declaration  of  Rights  made  by  the  Representatives  of  the  Freemen  of  the  State  of 
North-Carolina,  in  Congress  assembled,  at  Halilax,  the  17th  of  December,  in  the  year 
of  our  I>ord  177G  "  Sec.  19.  That  all  men  have  a  natural  and  unalienable  right  to  wor- 
ship Almighty  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences." 


23 

cesslul  orator;  he  kindles  lip  his  own  conceplion  by  conleir.plntiijg- 
the  scene  which  he  had  spread  out  fefore  him,  with  all  its  grand  and 
sublime  prospects,  as  well  as  the  desolation  and  ruin,  the  fens  and 
bogs,  which  contrasted  so  well  together;  he  sets  off  the  Bishop  of  the 
apostolical  days  in  the  most  happy  and  delightful  task  of  preserving 
the  Church  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  the  bonds  of  peace,  when  as 
yet  it  was  comparatively  united  and  undisturbed ;  he  continues  his 
description  of  the  Church  in  all  the  freshness  and  perfection,  and 
beauty  which  she  possessed  when  she  came  from  the  hands  of  her 
great  Architect,  when  the  Bishop's  task  was  comparatively  easy,  yet 
having  his  difficulties.     Then  as   quick  as   the  Bishop's  bounding 
thoughts  could  carry  him  from  the  glowing  picture  of  unity,  peace  and 
concord,  the  Church  stands  before  us  marred,  mutilated,  trodden  down, 
"a  jest  for  the  profane  and  a  rock  of  offence  for  the  schismatic." 
Behold  it  churchmen !     To  you  it  appeals,   imploringly.     See  her 
walls  are  broken  down,  her  altars  are  desecrated  v/ith  the  incense  of 
the  unholy  and  profane.     See  how  desolate,  how  forsaken  !     And  who 
has  done  all  this?     The  Turks?     No  !     The  Saracens?     No  !     The 
wicked  world?     No!     Who,   then,   has  perpetrated  this  mischief? 
Behold  the  man  ! — a  poor  dissenter !     Poor  old  Calvin!     Poor  old 
Wesley!  that  "set  up  a  Church  in  his  dotage" — a  mighty  good 
old  man ;  did  a  great  deal  of  good  among  the  colliers  and  poor  of 
England — 'pity  his  people  ever  left  us  ;  he  never  intended  it.     The 
Bishop  would  have  made  an  admirable  auxiliary  to  the  Grecian  orator, 
when  he  wanted  to  arouse  his  slumbering  countrymen  to  arms  against 
an  invading  foe !     This  part  of  the  Sermon,  to  say  nothing  more,  is  an 
admirably  contrived  piece  of  machinery.     The  figure  of  contrast  is 
carried  out  most  successfully.     We  are  only  surprised  that  his  listen- 
ing and  entranced  auditors,  who  felt  their  church-blood  stirred  up,  did 
not,  under  the  impulse,  rise  up  and  call  for  fire  from  heaven  to  con- 
sume the  uncircumcised  Philistians  !     Had  such  an  appeal  been  made 
in  Italy  or  Spain,  the  result  might  have  been  truly  disastrous  to  the 
English  Protestants.     We  feel  devoutly  thankful  to  Almighty  God, 
that  the  Sermon  was  delivered  at  the  capital  of  that  State,  whose 
emblematical  representation  shows 

"A  tyrant  crushed  beneath  the  foot  of  liberty : 
"  Sic  semper  tyrannisP 
We  contemn  the  proffered  charity  of  that  man,  though  it  comes 
with  paternal  solicitude  and  pity's  tears,  be  he  Bishop  or  be  he  layman, 


24 

w!io  could  thus  arlfuliy  work  upon  the  noblest  principles  and  leelings 
of  our  nature,  and  turn  tlieni  with  the  full  tide  of  a  new  and  awakened 
energy  against — what?  Not  sin  and  wickeness,  drunkenness  and 
debauchery,  but  against  our  fellow-christians,  who  adore  and  worship 
the  same  God;  who  trust  in  the  same  Lord  Jesus;  who  have  the 
same  Holy  Ghost  to  comfort  them;  who  believe  in  one  holy  catholic 
Church;  the  communion  of  saints  ;  the  forgiveness  of  sins  ;  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body,  and  life  everlasting — simply  because  they  do  not 
see,  and  therefore  will  not  acknowledge,  th.at  Episcopacy  is  the  only 
constituted  means  of  salvation  for  the  millions  of  our  apostate  race. 

As  to  the  name  ot  dissenters,  we  bear  it  ciieorfully,  though  spoken 
contemptuously.  As  to  heresy,  we  can  well  retort  the  charge.  As  to 
schism,  we  have  yet  to  learn  what  the  term  implies — who  will  tell  us? 
What  is  that  which  has  caused  the  shedding  of  so  much  blood?  We 
ask  the  Catholic  Bishop,  he  replies  "that  it  is  separation  from  the  Pope, 
the  universal  Bishop;  that  the  English  Church,  ever  since  a  wicked 
and  profligate  Prince,  to  gratify  his  own  lust  and  ambition,  denied  the 
authority  of  the  Pope,  the  whole  church  of  which  he  claimed  to  be  the 
head,  is  in  a  damnable  schism  and  heresy.''  I  ask  the  churchman 
what  is  schism?  He  says,  a  separation  from  your  Bishop,  and  setting 
up  another  altar  in  his  diocess :  that  in  England  and  America,  Roman- 
ists and  dissenters  are  in  the  damnable  sin  of  schism.  I  ask  the  high- 
churchman  what  is  the  difference  between  Romanism  and  the  Church 
of  England  ?  He  replies,  just  the  same  as  there  is  in  a  man  before  he 
washes  his  face  and  afterwards.  I  ask  the  old  Reformers,  and  they 
answer  in  their  homilies,  the  difference  is  the  same  as  between  a  scarlet 
whore  and  a  chaste  bride.  I  ask  the  Bishop  of  North-Carolina  to  tell 
us  how  we  are  to  know  that  he  is  not  both  schismatical  and  heretical? 
The  only  reply  is,  that  ilte  Church  teaches  hij  author  it  i/,  not  Li/  judg- 
ment ;  that  he  teaches  as  the  Church  teaches ;  and  they  both  teach 
according  to  the  Scriptures,  interpreted  by  the  Church.  Is  the  Church 
infallible?  May  it  not  teach  some  things  that  arc  wrong?  The 
whole  system  of  despotism,  cither  in  the  Catholic  Church  of  Rome  or 
the  Catholic  Church  of  the  United  States,  is  founded  on  this  infalli- 
bility. With  it  the  Catholics  make  a  plausible  theory;  without  it,  the 
Protestant  Church,  in  the  hands  of  a  high-churchman,  is  a  fit  subject 
for  ridicule  to  Romanists  and  dissenters. 

The  Bishop,  having  wrought  up  his  own  high-church  blood,  and 
that  of  his  brethren,  by  the  most  horrid  representations;  and  having 


25 

guided  their  just  indignation  towards  the  dissenter,  for  fear  that,  in  the 
warmth  and  animation  of  his  appeal,  they  might  miss  the  track — lest, 
in  their  good  nature,  they  might  be  led  to  apply  his  just  remarks  to 
"/Ae  loorld  at  large^' — he  gives  another  " whoop."  Here  they  are: 
/  know  them ;  as  a  body,  they  talk  earnestly  of  the  value  of  Holy 
writ,  contribute  liberally  to  its  general  distribution,  (mark  the  par- 
ticularity;) they  may  be  sincere;  they  may  believe  the  Bible,  for 
aught  we  know.  But  let  the  Bishop  fill  up  the  picture,  without  our 
daubing  it  "I  am  not  disposed,"  says  the  Bishop,  "to  question  either 
their  sincerity  or  their  belief  in  its  divuie  authenticity ;"  but  they  are 
professors.  And  then,  as  if  he  was  leading  on  a  new  importation  of 
Florida  warriors,  he  would  fain  track  them  into  secret  places,  where 
none  but  God  could  see  them.  I  mean,  says  the  Bishop,  that  they  fail 
(to  do  what?  to  fall  before  the  Bishop?)  they  fail  "with  a  believing 
eye  to  trace  upon  its  sacred  pages  the  aioful  presence  of  Almighty 
God,  revealing  to  them,  condemned  sinners,  the  only  way  of  salva- 
tion," And  what  is  this  way?  This  Bishop  tells  us  "a  three-iold 
ministry" — Diocesan  Episcopacy  by  divine  right,  to  ordain,  to  con- 
firm, and  consecrate ;  priests  to  ofi'er  sacrifice,  and  deacons  to  attend 
upon  them. 

Now  let  us  sum  up  the  Bishop's  ingeniously  framed  category,  and 
see  how  it  stands.  First,  they  are  men,  (rather  indefinite) ;  secondly, 
a  body  of  m.en  (more  specific,)  not  of  the  ivorld  at  large,  (still  more 
so) ;  thirdly,  they  are  professors  ;  fourthly,  they  talk  earnestly  of  the 
value  of  holy  writ ;  fifthly,  they  contribute  liberally  to  its  general  dis- 
tribution ;  sixthly,  sincerity  not  doubted,  or  doubted,  as  you  please ; 
seventhly,  their  belief  in  the  same  predicament ;  eighthly,  their  faith 
fails  (if  they  have  any)  to  trace  the  awful  presence  of  God  ;  and  there- 
fore, ninthly,  mainly,  chiefly,  and  lastly,  they  are  condemned  sin- 
ners. And  lest,  by  any  possibility,  the  clergy  and  laity  might  get 
on  the  wrong  track,  the  Bishop,  in  his  notes  and  appendix,  specifi- 
cally points  them  out — "  Romanist,  Calvinist,  Methodists,  and  their 
kindred  hostsJ^ 

Here  you  have  the  natural  product  of  that  universal,  invisible,  un- 
changeable, and  indivisible  unit,  spiritual  despotism,  absurdly  called 
the  unity  of  the  Church — a  union  which,  while  it  condemns  the  abuse 
of  an  inquisitorial  tribunal,  regards  it  as  a  legitimate  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  a  Bishop,  for  the  safety  of  the  Church  against  schism,  heresy 
and  dissent.    Is  it  amazing,  that  such  a  unity  should  become  a  "jest 


26 

for  the  profane  and  a  stumbling  block  for  the  schismatic  "?  The  Bish- 
op's good  intentions  may  screen  him  from  the  force  of  our  remarks  ; 
but  candid  men  must  see  tiiat  the  Bishop  either  said  what  he  did 
mean  to  say  and  that  he  meant  what  he  said,  or  that  he  did  not 
know  what  he  was  talking  about — as  is  too  frequently  the  case  when 
men  are  irritated. 

The  next  thing  which  strikes  our  attention  as  very  merciful  for 
the  poor,  desperate  dissenter,  is  the  most  singular  adaptation  of  merci- 
ful provision,  not  in  the  Gospel,  but  in  the  Bishop's  plan.  They  are 
required,  in  order  to  realize  its  benefits,  to  yield  the  most  entire,  un- 
qualified and  childlike  submission  in  faith^  and  obedience  to  this  pro- 
vision. What  provision?  The  Bishop  answers  the  question:  The 
three  orders  of  the  ministry.  A  friend  of  the  Bishop  may  reply,  the 
Bishop  does  not  mean  so.  Well,  let  the  Bishop  tell  us  so.  If  he  does 
not  mean  this,  what  does  he  mean?  Is  he  talking  nonsense  all  the 
time  ?  Sure,  the  Bishop  is  his  own  best  interpreter.  "I  do  not  mean," 
says  the  Bishop,  "that  this  spirit  (of  faith  and  obedience)  always  re- 
"  quires  a  written  command  to  ensure  its  obedience.  Far  otherwise — 
"such  a  spirit,  ever  ready  to  be  taught,  reads  God's  will,  as  well  in  his 
"established  institutions,  as  in  His  recorded  precepts.  When,  for  ex- 
"  ample,  it  sees  three  orders  of  ministers  fixed  in  the  Church  of  God, 
"as  it  arose  under  his  direction,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  in- 
"  spired  Apostles,  and  that  the  power  of  ordination  in  its  exercise,  was 
"restricted  to  the  highest  order,  it  asks  not  in  shaping  its  obedience 
"to  the  divine  will  for  a  command  to  continue  this  arrangement,  but 
"for  authority  (o  alter  it." — (Sermon,  14th  page.) 

The  good  churchman,  we  hope,  sees  that  the  Bishop  did  mean 
what  we  have  said.  The  only  offset  we  have  is  this  :  We  do  not  see 
it ;  WE  cannot  see  it ;  and  we,  therefore,  do  not  submit  to  the  Bishop's 
plan  to  save  dissenters.  That  we  have  not  pushed  the  Bishop's 
doctrines  beyond  the  legitimate  deductions  of  common  sense,  plainly 
appears  from  the  fact  that  the  moment  these  half-infidel  professors, 
these  desperate  sinners,  called  dissenters,  without  the  least  change  in 
their  moral  characters,  except  what  is  implied  in  their  submission  to 
the  Bishop,  ask  for  and  receive  confirmation  or  ordination,  they  are  at 
once  assured  thai  they  are  in  a  state  of  certain  salvation ;  their  sincerity 
or  good  intentions  having  little  to  do  in  the  premises. — (See  the  Bish- 
op's note,  Uth  page.) 

We  cannot  follow  the  Bishop  through  all  the  mazes  and  intricacies 


27 

of  his  Sermon.  We  will  transcribe  a  part  of  the  seventh  page,  and  add 
such  explanatory  words  as  make  sense  of  the  Sermon.  The  Bishop 
continues  :  "I  mean  that  they,  these  men  described,  fail,  as  trembling 
rebels  brought  in  chains  to  the  feet  of  their  dread  sovereign,  to  hear 
him,  through  the  Bishop,  speak  to  them  the  words  of  eternal  life  ;  tell 
them,  in  mingled  accents  of  love  and  authority,  what  they  must  do  to 
be  saved — that  is,  to  submit  to  a  three-fold  m,inistiy,  that  they  may 
point  them  to  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  now  through  simple 
means  of  his  own  appointment,  by  a  three-fold  ministry  in  his  Church, 
opening  the  treasures  of  his  grace  and  shedding  on  them  abundantly — 
first  by  baptism,,  secondly,  in  greater  measure  by  confirmatioii,  and 
thirdly,  by  the  Lord's  supper — the  energies  of  his  blessed  spirit.  And, 
lest  their  presumption  should  lead  them  to  violate  this  plan  0/ a  iJ/wee- 
fold  ministry,  recording  the  applying  testimony  in  Rev.  xxii,  18,  19." 
If  ever  military  prowess  was  successfully  exerted  to  shut  up  an 
enemy  and  bring  them  to  lay  down  their  arms  at  the  mercy  of  the 
triumphant  General — the  Bishop,  at  least  in  his  own  estimation,  has 
shut  up  these  dissenters.  But  there  is  one  serious  defect  in  ihe  Bish- 
op's seige.  He  built  a  castle,  first,  to  put  the  enemy  in  ;  he  brought 
all  his  artillery  and  engines  to  bear  upon  its  walls — but  lo  !  the  enemy 
was  not  there  !  They  had  watched  the  Bishop's  movements  so  closely, 
that,  before  he  was  aware,  they  seized  his  own  armor,  which  he  thought 
he  had  so  dexterously  used,  and  dealt  out  to  him  ils  dealiest,  heaviest 
blows  I  Nothing  could  have  been  so  imprudent,  at  this  juncture — 
nothing  could  betray  theBishop's  want  of  controversial  generalship  sO' 
much — as  his  drawing  so  largely  upon  the  rich  magazine  from  which 
the  dissenters  draw  all  their  weapons.  The  Bishop  had  much  better 
fought  in  Saul's  armor  than  with  David's  sling;  it  certainly  suits 
better  the  princely  dignity  of  Oxford,  than  the  simple  stones  gathered 
from  the  brook  of  Truth.  Besides,  the  sword  of  the  spirit,  in  unskilful 
hands,  may  be  harmless  to  an  adversary,  while  it  deals  death  to  him 
that  uses  it.  The  Bishop  seems  to  have  been  aware  of  this;  and 
before  his  final  triumph — before  he  could  shout  over  th3  spoils  of  vic- 
tory— he  cast  his  sword  away,  as  a  useless  thing ;  and  to  end  the  con- 
test most  gloriously,  he  says:  Submit  to  my  authority  ^  if  you  will  not 
to  my  heaviest,  deadliest  blows  ! 

Here  is,  indeed,  a  noble  achievement  for  the  successor  of  the  Apos- 
tle who  said,  "the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty 
through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong  holds"!     After  a  whole 


28 

campaign  of  exterminating  warfare  against  heresy  and  schism,  the 
Bishop  concludes  with  this  most  grave  and  solemn  truth  :  that  a  spirit 
of  obedience  does  not  always  require  a  written  command  to  ensure  its 
obedience,  in  a  case  where  the  penalty  of  disobedience  is  damnation ! 

No  wonder  tliat  the  Bishop  prefers  to  teach  by  authority,  rather 
than  Scripture,  or  reason,  or  common  sense ;  that  he  may  tell  dissent- 
ers, with  all  the  authority  of  his  official  dignity,  that  they  are  to  see 
what  is  not  to  be  seen — to  do  what  they  cannot,  dare  not  do,  without 
violating  honesty  and  truth,  and  reason,  and  scripture — in  order  that 
they  may  be  saved  by  God's  instituted  means,  namely,  submission  to 
the  authority  of  a  diocesan  Bishop,  as  the  successor  of  the  Apostles,  for 
which  there  is  no  written  command  in  the  word  of  God,  none  on  the 
face  of  nature,  and  every  thing  in  God's  providential  dispensations 
against  it. 

As  we  have  commenced  a  review  of  the  Bishop's  Sermon  in  an- 
other place,  we  here  dismiss  it,  with  this  single  remark:  that  in  all 
the  attempts  to  make  out  a  case,  we  have  met  with  but  one  instance  of 
such  a  triumphant  failure  as  that  in  the  case  before  us.  The  case  is 
that  of  a  Mormon  Prophet  with  whom  we  conversed,  very  recently, 
who,  when  he  was  asked  how  it  came  to  pass  that  Joe  Smith  could 
interpret  the  Mormon  Scriptures  when  no  one  else  could,  very  gravely 
replied,  by  "Urim  and  Thummim." 

And  now,  candid  churchmen,  we  address  ourselves  to  you.  We 
anticipate  the  cry  of  persecution.  That  comes  with  an  ill  grace  from 
one  who  aids  and  abets  the  persecutions  of  others.  But  whom  have 
we  persecuted  ?  The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  ?  We  deny  the 
charge.  Let  any  man  of  honesty  look  into  the  writings  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church,  and  he  will  see  that,  in  every  instance  of  controversy 
with  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States,  or  the 
English  Church,  the  Methodist  Church  has  always  been  the  criminal 
prosecuted ;  and  she  has  set  up  her  defence  on  the  broad  ground  of  the 
law  of  nature,  as  well  as  scripture,  that  a  criminal  should  not  be  con- 
demned unheard.  The  Methodists  make  no  assaults  on  the  Church  ; 
and  if  they  at  any  time  have  admonished  the  Church  of  what  might 
appear  to  them  to  be  blemishes,  it  has  been  only,  in  the  language  of 
Dr.  Hook  of  Oxford,  that  she  might  be  the  same  Church  after  as  before, 
as  a  man  is  the  same  man  after  he  washes  his  face  as  he  was  before. 
We  have  never  seen  the  time  since  our  attention  was  called  to  the 
subject  of  Christianity,  that  we  could  not  in  conscience  have  been  a 


29 

member  of  your  Church,  until  the  exposition  ol  her  doctrines  by  the 
Sermon  we  have  reviewed.  And  even  now,  could  the  great  purposes 
for  which  the  Church  was  instituted — the  alleviation  of  human  sufler- 
ings,  the  renovation  and  sanctification  of  human  nature,  and  the  pre- 
paration of  every  one  to  meet  the  glorious  advent  of  the  blessed  Son  of 
God — be  best  subserved  by  an  association  with  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  it  would  be  no  sacrifice  to  us  to  subscribe  her  articles  :  to 
adopt  the  traditions  as  set  forth  in  her  admirable  and  scriptural  prayer 
book.  Leaving  all  other  denominations  to  make  their  owi> apology,  in 
that  way  and  at  that  time  which  to  them  may  seem  best,  to  ward  off 
the  illiberal  and  unfounded  attack  of  the  Sermon — we  ask,  what  intel- 
ligent Methodist  has  ever  assailed  the  Church  of  which  you  f,re  a 
member?  The  traditions  of  Wesley,  of  Clark,  of  Wanson,  of 
Bangs,  and  Emory,  have  taught  us  otherwise ; — we  have  endeavored 
to  follow  their  teachings.  But  we  have  assailed  your  Bishop  7  By  no 
means.  We  have  assailed  his  dissent,  his  heresy  and  schism ;  and 
could  we  find  a  competent  tribunal,  having  appellate  jurisdiction  in 
the  premises,  it  would  be  a  small  task  to  convict  his  Sermon  of  the 
charge  of  heresy  and  schism,  if  not  of  dissent.  If  we  carry  the  cause 
up  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  he  certainly  would  be  at  no  loss  to  decide  ; — 
if  we  take  him  to  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  for  the  first  three  centu- 
ries, his  case  would  be  equally  hopeless ; — if  we  carry  him  still  farther 
back  to  Primitive  Christianity,  even  the  Oxford  tract  men,  as  well  as 
Bishop  Ives,  acknowledge  that  the  command  to  continue  the  Bishop's 
arrangement  in  the  establishment  is  wanting; — if  we  take  the  case  up 
to  the  Reformation,  there  the  judges  have  been  divided  ;  but  a  majority 
of  the  early  Reformers  are  against  the  Bishop ; — could  we  take  the 
case  up  to  the  House  of  Bishops,  at  their  next  convocation  at  Philadel- 
phia, we  could  just  as  easily  convict  him  of  heresy  and  schism,  as  he 
can  convict  us  of  dissent — heresy  in  doctrine,  leading  to  schism.  And 
the  Church  may  wake  up  as  much  as  she  may,  to  the  dangers  that  are 
without ;  but  she  will  yet  feel  most  deeply  from  the  injuries  within 
her  body.  Schism  in  the  body,  is  Paul's  schism  against  which  he 
cautions  the  Church.  We  want  nothing  but  the  prayer  book  and  the 
old  homilies,  if  they  have  not  been  abrogated  by  disuse,  to  establish 
all  we  say. 

To  charge  the  Methodist  Church  with  heresy  and  schism,  comes 
with  a  very  ill  grace  from  the  author  of  the  Sermon  ;  when  the  Metiio- 
dist  Church  has  done  more  to  revive  and  perpetuate  the  godly  and 


30 

wholesome  doctrines  of  the  homilies,  than  tiic  Protestant  Church  itself! 
With  most  churchmen  they  are  obsolete— not  in  phraseology  only,  but 
in  substance  and  matter.  And  it  is  but  a  poor  apology,  indeed,  that 
their  antique  diction  should  be  so  offensive  to  a  churchman's  ear,  that — 
in  a  Sermon  of  twenty  pages  and  an  appendix  often  pages,  interspersed 
with  references  to  and  quotations  from  Palmer,  Doane,  and  Bishop 
Ives,  and  the  Oxford  writers — there  is  not  a  single  quotation,  not  a 
single  reference  to  the  old  homilies  of  the  Church;  and  any  one  may 
see  that  the  Sermon  has  dropped  its  acquaintance  with  those  antiqua- 
ted authors,  and  exchanged  them  for  the  writers  of  high-church  Epis- 
copacy. But  still  you  cry  out,  persecution  !  We  have  not  not  perse- 
cuted Bishop  Ives  ; — we  have  only  picked  up  his  Porcupine  quills, 
which  were  intended  to  kill  us  out-right,  and,  with  reversed  points, 
thrown  them  back  at  him — not  to  kill,  nor  to  wound  him;  much  less 
to  abate  the  reverence  due  to  his  official  character  or  his  moral  worth. 
We  do  not  wish  to  hurt  a  hair  of  his  head.  The  only  essential  prin- 
ciple of  his  nature  we  would  affect,  is  his  conscience ;  the  only  acci- 
dental property  we  would  destroy,  is  his  excessive  vanity;  and  we 
would  do  that  in  perfect  good  humor.  There  is  another  view  whicli 
churchmen  overlook,  in  this  controversy.  AVere  we  to  gain  a  com- 
plete victory,  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  would  stand  forth  before 
us  in  all  the  freshness  and  beauty  of  primitive  times; — in  other  words, 
her  face  would  be  washed — perhaps,  a  little  cleaner  than  when  she 
escaped  the  enormities  of  Rome.  That  would  be  all  the  injury  we 
.  could  in  our  heart  give  her,  if  we  had  her  in  our  povver.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  high-church  Episcopacy  triumphs,  what  monstrous  conse- 
quences must  follow,  any  intelligent  man  may  see:  all  of  us  are  living 
without  grace,  and,  like  our  fathers  before  us,  we  must  die  without  it ! 
If  the  Bishop  triumphs  over  our  Church,  and  we  suffer  him  to  put  his 
heel  on  our  necks,  we  have  too  little  confidence  in  his  sort  of  charity 
to  suppose  he  would  stay  his  hand  until  we  were  dead  and  buried,  and 
a  stone  of  the  heaviest  weight  set  down  on  our  graves,  for  fear  that  we 
might  by  possibility  get  up  again.  Now  let  us  ask,  if  a  man  who  fights 
for  a  garland  of  flowers  may  yet  be  allowed  to  agonize,  what  may  not 
a  man  do  when  he  strives  for  breath  ?  If  Bishop  Ives  can  be  allowed 
to  contend  so  warmly  for  an  indefinable  something,  that  no  human 
being  has  ever  seen  or  can  see,  if  it  exists  at  all,  or  has  been  able  to 
find  it  where  it  has  been  said  to  exist,  sure  a  Methodist  preacher  may 
be  allowed  to  contend  earnestly  for  that  "liberty  wherewhilh  Christ 
hath  made  us  free"? 


31 

We  are  aware  that  those  who  liave  not  properly  analyzed  the 
Bishop's  Sermon,  may  think  we  are  persecuting  the  Bishop  instead  of 
exposing  the  enormities  of  the  Sermon.  We  ask  them  not  to  read  our 
remarks,  without  having  read  or  intending  to  read  the  Sermon.  We 
ask  them  to  consider  what  are  the  legitimate  deductions  from  the 
Bishop's  own  doctrines  and  statements. 

Notwithstanding  his  ingeniously  constructed  category,  here  is 
what  the  Sermon  distinctly  assumes :  That  dissenters,  as  a  body — that 
is,  Methodists,  Calvinists,  and  their  "kindred  hosts,"  who  are  so  well 
known  to  the  Bishop ;  who  talk  earnestly  of  the  value  of  holy  writ,  and 
contribute  liberally  to  its  general  distribution ;  whose  sincerity  the 
Bishop  cannot  feel  disposed  to  question ;  whose  belief  in  the  divine 
authority  of  the  Bible  he  is  not  disposed  to  doubt ;  but  who,  neverthe- 
less, fail  with  a  believing  eye  to  trace  upon  its  sacred  pages,  the  awful 
presence  of  Almighty  God,  revealing  to  them,  condemned  sinners,  the 
only  way  of  salvation,  by  "a  three-fold  ministry,"  Bishops,  Priests  and 
Deacons ;  the  evidence  of  which  failure,  is  found  in  their  not  yielding, 
in  order  to  realize  its  benefits,  the  most  entire,  unqualified,  and  child- 
like submission  in  faith  and  obedience  to  this  merciful  provision  of  the 
three  Orders  in  the  ministry,  as  God's  scheme  of  saving  guilty  and 
perishing  men — being  in  a  damnable  error,  it  is  the  duty  of  all  church- 
men, Bishops,  Priests  and  Deacons,  to  address  themselves  mainly  to 
the  most  charitable  work  of  proselyting  them  from  their  different  com- 
munions ;  and  when  tears  and  entreaties  fail,  to  overthrow  them  with 
nothing  less  than  the  sternest,  heaviest  blows  of  the  two-edged  sword 
of  the  spirit,  polished  and  sharpened  by  tradition  and  the  authority  of 
the  Church — by  telling  them,  that  they  might  just  as  well  try  to  make 
a  world,  as  to  obtain  the  promised  grace  of  the  Gospel,  except  in  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church ;  that  they  are  schismatical  and  hereti- 
cal, their  ministers  intruders,  and  their  sacraments  nothing  more  than 
eating  bread  and  drinking  wine ; — and  now,  having,  by  the  Providence 
of  God,  the  requisite  means  of  avoiding  error,  they  are  without  excuse, 
and  even  the  uncovenanted  mercies  of  God  will  not  avail. 

Now  let  us  suppose  the  Bishop's  feeling  and  resistless  appeal  to  the 
religious  feelings  of  Bishop  Johns,  the  other  reverend  Bishops  and 
Clergy,  and  the  congregation,  were  to  take  full  effect.  What  would 
be  the  consequence  ?  But  that  is  nothing  to  a  fanatic — yet  it  ought  to 
be  to  a  Bishop.  A  man  should  be  morally  certain  that  it  is  his  duty 
to  act  in  the  premises,  before  he  scatters  firebrands,  arrows  and  death, 


32 

amongst  his  neighbors.  He  ought  to  be  able  to  say,  "thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  at  least,  before  he  begins. 

Suppose  the  Methodists  were  to  take  it  into  their  heads,  among 
their  other  '•  vag-iries,"  that  they  were  the  true  Church,  the  only  cath- 
ohc  and  Apostolic  Church ;  that  all  others  were  intruders,  and  were 
in  a  damnable  sin.  so  long  as  they  refused  submission  to  a  Methodist 
Bishop ;  and  under  an  exciting  sermon  from  him,  were  to  think  it 
their  duty  to  go  on  a  crusade  to  convert  the  Episcopalians.  We 
should  like  to  see  a  Methodist  Bishop  leading  a  Bishop  of  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  to  the  altar  to  get  his  soul  converted  by  their 
"new  measure — the  opus  operatum  of  Popery ^  Would  it  not  be 
a  sight  supremely  ridiculous!  Would  not  the  Methodist  unity  be  a 
jest  for  the  profane,  and  a  rock  of  offence  to  the  schismatic?  And 
after  all,  what  is  this  stumbling,  this  rock  of  offence,  which  the  Metho- 
dists throw  in  the  Bishop's  way,  and  in  the  way  of  Protestant  Episco- 
palians? We  do  not  bring  them  to  our  houses  of  worship  or  private 
dwellings,  and  shock  and  insult  them,  by  abusing  their  Church,  which 
we  believe  to  be  a  branch  of  the  true  Church  :  we  do  not  go  to  their 
houses  of  worship  or  their  dwellings,  unasked,  to  sing  hymns  and  pray 
and  exhort  them  to  repentance,  and  to  bring  them  back  to  our  Church 
as  the  only  true  Church — the  only  saving  sacraments — and  thereby 
outrage  all  the  decencies  of  life  and  the  rules  of  hospitality.  "What  is 
it,  then?  It  is  this.  We  differ  from  them,  and  do  not  make  their 
consciences  and  opinion  the  rule  of  our  conduct.  But  is  it  reasonable 
to  expect  this?  They  differ  as  much  from  us  as  we  from  them. 
Why  should  they  govern  us  more  than  we  them?  Why  should  not 
each  be  content  to  differ,  without iiny  breach  of  kindness  or  charity? 
To  love  and  bear  with  those  who  agree  with  us  in  all  things^  said  a 
distinguished  divine,  is  but  a  low  pitch  of  virtue.  I  had  almost  said 
it  is  but  sacrificing  to  our  own  pride,  and  little  better  than  loving  our- 
selves over  again  in  others.  But  to  bear  with  and  be  kind  in  our 
opinions  of  those  who  differ  from  us,  is  to  sacrifice  pride  and  self- 
complacency  at  the  altar  of  charity.  Let  us  learn  to  bear  with  all  that 
variety  of  judgment  which  can  possibly  be  accounted  for  from  thai 
variety  of  temper,  education  and  conversation,  which  are  unavoidable 
in  this  State." 

After  all,  what  is  that  great  and  irreconcilable  difference  between 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States?     We  ask,  what  is  that  impassable  gulph  over 


which  a  Bishop  of  the  one  Church  cannot  pass  in  the  interchange  of 
ministerial  courtesy;  unless  the  Bishop  chooses  to  occupy  a  pulpit  of  a 
Bishop,  when  he  has  none  of  his  own?  What  is  that  leprosy  that  so 
cleaves  to  a  Methodist  minister,  that  every  clerical  com.edian  must 
wiilihold  from  him  even  the  common  title  of  his  office,  for  fenr  of  in- 
juring the  Church  7  And  what  must  be  the  foundation  of  that  Church 
which  stands  or  falls  by  the  right  or  wrong  use  of  the  definite  and 
indefinite  articles  a  and  the !  Is  this  the  rock  upon  which  the  Lord 
Jesus  built  his  Church?  What,  then,  is  there  in  Methodism,  as  it  has 
been  contemptuously  named,  so  autagonistical  to  the  Churchy  that  one 
or  the  other  mnst  die- — that  it  amounts  to  the  noblest  charity  to  pluck 
them  as  brands  from  the  fire?  Do  our  church  friends  fear  God  in 
truth?  So  do  we.  Do  they  love  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  daily  look  for  his 
promised  coming  ?  So  do  we.  Have  they  the  comfortable  communion 
and  fellowship  of  the  Spirit  ?  So  have  we.  Are  they  dying  to  the  world, 
daily,  as  their  Bishop  has  so  often  taught  them  ?  So,  we  trust,  are  we. 
Have  they  the  spirit  itself  bearing  witness  with  their  spirits?  So,  we 
trust,  have  we.  Have  they  received  the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby 
they  cry  Abba  Father?  So  have  we.  Do  they  bring  forth  t!ie  fruits 
of  the  spirit  ?  So,  we  trust,  we  do,  in  some  tolerable  degree.  Do  they  . 
carry  out  their  baptismal  vow  to  renounce  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  devil?  So,  the  Lord  being  our  helper,  we  have  intended,  and  do 
still  intend  to  do.  Do  they  believe  that  to  love  C-cd  with  all  the  heart, 
and  our  neighbor  as  ourselves,  is  better  than  all  whole  burnt  ofterings 
and  sacrifices?  So  do  we.  Have  they  been  regenerated  and  born 
anew,  as  well  by  the  spii:it  oi  God  as  by  water  ?  So,  we  trust,  have 
we.  Have  they  been  confirmed  In  the  hopes  and  promises  of  the 
Ijospel?  So  have  we,  daily,  by  the  renewed  application  of  the  blood 
of  sprinkling,  purging  our  hearts  from  an  evil  conscience,  to  serve  the 
living  God.  Have  they  a  good  hope,  through  the  blood  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  so  freely  shed  for  our  sins,  that  they  will  come  to 
heaven  ?  Bless  God  for  it !  so  have  we.  And  it  maketh  not  ashamed, 
because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  given  unto  us.  Where,  then,  is  the  ground  of  mutual  jealousy 
Jind  hostility?  Do  they  love  the  Scriptures,  and  read,  and  learn,  and 
mark,  and  inwardly  digest  them?  So  do  we  ;  interpreting  them,  not 
according  to  our  vagaries^  but  restrained  by  the  common  rules  of  in- 
terpretation— by  reason  and  common  sense,  aided  by  the  best  lights  of 
Ancient  exposition,  and  the  spirit  of  God  that  inspired  them;  reserving 


*5 


,*  34 

to  ourselves  the  right  to  aj)peal  from  all  Fathers,  Councils,  cECunienicai 
or  provincial,  all  conyocations  of  IBishops  or  individual  interpretation 
of  Bishop-!,  when  they  contradict  ihc  plain  letter  of  Scripture,  outrage 
the  rules  of  just  criticism,  and  common  sense  interpretation  :  and 
when,  by  torturing  and  twisting  obscure  and  isolated  passages,  they  find 
out  conditions  of  salvation  other  than  those  wliich  are  so  clearly,  np- 
cquivocally  and  constantly  revealed.  Do  they  allow  to  others  while 
they  claim  for  themselves  liberty  of  conscience  ?  So  do  we  ; — as  indi- 
viduals, resjionsible  only  to  God  for  the  use  or  abuse  of  the  powers  and 
privileges  he  bestows  ;  as  christians,  holding  ourselves  responsible  to 
all  other  christians,  so  far  as  their  charity  and  amity  are  concern- 
ed, for  our  opinions  and  practices  ;  us  members  of  the  Church,  holding 
ourselves  r-csponsible  to  the  society  to  which  we  belong — M'hatever  our 
private  judgment  may  be,  not  to  inveigh  against  her  doctrines  and  dis- 
cipline, or  otherwise  disturb  the  peace  of  the  Churcli  or  society  to 
which  we  belong,  so  long  as  our  connexion  lasts.  Do  they  honor  and 
respect  their  Bishops  and  other  clergy,  and  pray  for  them?  So  do  we ; 
and  \vc  can  do  so  for  all  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  iu,  sincerity. 
Do  they  fear  the  reproofs  and  censures  of  their  Bisliops  and  clergy 
who  oversee  them 7  So  do  we;  as  dutiful  children  we  would  not 
offend  them,  unnecessarily,  for  any  consideration.  Do  tiiey  tremble  at 
the  axe  and  sword  of  e.vcommimication,  which  is  inore  terrible  to  the 
soul  than  death  ?  So  do  we,  when  our  guilty  hearts  condemn  us  ns 
apostates  from  the  faith  of  the  blessed  Lord  Jesus.  But  -while  we 
retain  a  conscience  void  of  offence,  the  ind>A^elling  testimony  that  we 
please  God,  with  the  comfort  of  his  holy  spirit  to  sustain  us,  we  have 
as  little  regard  for  the  bulls  of  Popes  and  the  thundering  anathemas  of 
the  Vatican,  ns  we  have  for  the  peacock's  plume  that  any  spiritual  fop 
may  stick  in  his  oflicial  cap.  What  then,  we  ask  again,  is  it  that  sepa- 
rates us  from  our  Episcopal  brethren,  who,  from  our  hearts  we  can 
say,  arc  in  all  vespects  as  good  as  we  are  by  natural  inheritance,  and 
better,  for  all  we  know,  by  more  aboimding  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
working  in  them  energetically  that  renovation  wiiich  constitutes  their 
virtue  here  on  earth,  and  prepares  them  for  glory  in  lieaven?  To 
this  repeated  interrogatory,  we  have  but  one  answer — it  is  this: 
Me  cannot  .see  how  a  personal  succession  of  ministerial  character  can 
corne  down  unpolJutod,  through  a  race  of  moral  monsters — from 
whom,  in  tlir  time  of  the  Pious  King  F.nw.^RD  VI,  tlie  Reformers 
taught  the  pciipli'  to  [Tiiy  to  be  delivered  on  account  of  '-detestable 


enormities" — when  Ihe  homilies  ol  the  Ghurch,  unannuUed  to  this 
day,  declare  the  Ghurch  of  Rome  to  be  not  only  a  harlot,  but  also 
^'•a foul, filthy  1  old,  withered  Harlot.-^ 

If  for  the  sake  of  such  a  succession,  Protestant  Episcopalians  close 
their  Churches  against  our  ministrations; — if  they  uirn  from  us  with 
horror,  as  sacrilegious  intruders  into  the  work  of  the  ministry ; — if  they 
withhold  even  the  common  courtesies  and  civilities  of  life  from  us, 
sooner  than  give  up  this  figment  which  the  purest  men  and  best  wri- 
ters in  the  Church  of  Englan.d  never  did  believe  ; — they  may  have  all 
the  glory  which  the  present  or  the  future  may  bestow  upon  them. 
We  are  willing  to  take  the  shame  of  being  contumacious  toward 
priestly  dignity  in  the  exercise  of  our  private  judgement,  and  will  en- 
deavor to  pursue  the  even  tenor  of  our  way.  as  we  have  hitherto 
done;  doing  our  work  in  the  way  which  to  us  seems  most  according 
to  God's  holy  word,  to  the  times,  and  circumstances  around  us. 

In  what  we  have  written,  we  have  endeavored  most  zealously  and 
faithfully  so  to  write  as  to  show  ourselves  approved  unto  God,  a  work- 
man that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed  ;  rightly  dividing  the  words  of  truth 
and  giving  to  each  his  portion  in  due  season.  Such  as  we  had  we  have 
endeavored  to  giNQ.  Jt  may  be  coarse,  but  yet  wholesome.  It  certain- 
ly will  not  suit  those  whose .  ias-Zes*  are  refirjed  above  the  standard  of 
the  ol,d  homilies; — but  it  may  have  this  effect,  at  least,  to  show  our 
Ghurch  friends  it  is  easier  to  provoke  an  assault  than  it  is  to  repel  one, 
and  where  neither  can  gain  any  thing  in  the  contest,  we  had  better  let 
strife  alone  before  it  is  meddled  with ;  that  in  '■'•carrying  the  war  into 
Africa^^  as  an  Episcopal  writer  has  it,  success  mainly  depends  on  their 
hiving  a  Roman  General — other^wise,  they  will  run  bacic  tp  Rome 
much  faster  than  they  marched  out  of  it.  Some  are  already  gone  back 
in  England;  some  in  the  United  States;  some  in  North-Carolina! 
The  position  in  which  high- church jnen  place  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Ghurch,  is  by  no  means  an  enviable  one — between  the  fires  of  Roman 
schismatics  and  American  dissent.  If  she  can  find  nothing  else  to 
assail — if  there  are  no  unoccupied  \yastes  in  the  vales  jand  hills  of  the 
Canaanites  nor  the  plains  of  Sodom — she  had  better  put  off  her  aggres- 
sive character,  fix  down  her  stakes,  and  tarry  on  this  side  of  Jordan. 
IJut  if  she  will  enter  the  league  with  us  against  sin  and  wickedness, 
which  abound  in  the  world  at  large  ; — if  she  will  aid  us  in  beating 
down  tlie  strong  holds  of  Satan,  either  in  the  Church  or  in  the  world ; — 
we  say,  Give  us  your  hand,  we  will  never  fall  out  about  your  Epis- 


4%.  30 

copacy;  we  will  reverence  your  prayer  book,  as  a  monument  of  the 
learning  and  piety  of  our  Fathers  ;  we  will  hold  the  ancient  Creed  in- 
violate, as  a  sacred  treasure  gathered  from  the  exhaustlcss  mine  of  un- 
mixed truth ;  and  when  we  have,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
Israel,  and  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  captain  of  our  salvation,  beat  down  our 
mutual  foes — ignorance,  vice,  and  profligacy — we  will  calmly  wait  the 
Second  Advent  of  our  Lord  to  shew  to  us  how,  by  his  most  miracu- 
lous power,  he  has  transmitted  his  pure  Word,  and,  by  an  uninter- 
rupted succession  of  spiritual  ministers,  brought  about  the  glory  of 
these  latter  days  ;  when  many  are  running  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge 
is  increasing  even  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Come,  Lord  Jesus, 
come  quickly ;  and  let  the  world  be  filled  with  thy  glory.     Amen. 


tJ^  On  the  6th  page,  in  the  I6th  line  from  the  top,  for  the  word 
^^mixedJ^  read  evinced. 


* 


U  ^^^ 


PASTORAL  LETTER. 


FROM    THE 


MEm  m  Mmmm  tmwLw 


TO    TItK 


CHURCHES  CxXDEll  ITS  CARE, 


ADOPTED    AT 


lOtSi  iVovesnber,  18i5. 


FAYETTEVILLE  : 
PRINTED  BY  EDWARD  J.  HALE. 

1846. 


"^ 


pAgf  OlAi  hMW 


The  Synod  of  North  Carolina  to  the  churches  under  taotr  care.     Grace, 
jnercy  and  peace  from  God  our  Father,  and  from  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Beloved  Brethren  in  the  Lorb: 

You  are,  no  doubt,  aware,  that  one  of  the  primary  objects 
of  the  annual  meetings  of  your  Synod,  composed,  as  it  is,  of  the  Pastors 
and  representatives  of  your  churches,  is,  carefully  to  iinquire  into  the  con- 
dition of  our  beloved  Zion;  and  to  devise  and  propose  measures  for  her, 
improvement  and  enlargement.  Remembering  our  high  responsibility, 
as  watchman  on  the  walls  of  Zion,  we  feel  constrained  to  communicate 
to  you,  the  results  and  conclusions  at  which  we  have  aniv€>d,  in  an  af- 
fectionate but  faithful  Pastoral  Letter.  Regard  it,  we  beseech  you,  net 
a,s  an  ordinary  official  document,  but  as  a  special  communication  upon 
matters  of  practical  and  vital  importance  to  yourselves,  to  your  children, 
to  our  common  country,  and  to  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ^ 

And,  at  the  very  out-set,  truth  requires  us  to  state*,  that  the  general 
aspect  of  our  Zion,  at  present,  is  unusually  discowraging  and  humiliating; 
that  feebleness  and  decline  are  the  leading  features  o(  many,  whilst  cold- 
ness, inactivity,  and  barrenness,  are  the  most  prominent  characteristics 
<if  nearly  all  our  cluirches; — a  very  few  only  appearing  lo  he  prosperous. 
Death  and  emigration  are  steadily,  and  with  increasing  rapidity,  thinning 
■our  ranks,  and  diminishing  our  numbers.  Very  many  of  our  venerable 
Fathers,  both  in  the  ministry  and  among  the  laity,  who  have  been,  du- 
I'ing  the  last  half-century,  so  prompt  to  come  up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord 
against  the  mighty,  have  no  longer  a  place,  either  in  our  churches  or  in 
our  church  judicatories.  Nor  have  any  of  our  churches,  of  late,  been  re- 
freshed and  strengthened  by  revivals  of  religion,  as  in  former  years.  The 
I'^athers  have  fallen  asleep;  but  their  sons,  to  an  alarming  extent,  con- 
tinue in  the  course  of  this  world.  The  spirit  of  revivals,  those  preciou£S 
harvest  seasons  for  the  souls  of  men  and  for  the  churoh  of  God,  sesms  to 


]!!ivc  (icpartt'd  from  nmnng  us.     AVitli  vory  few  cxceptiong,  tl.c  numltcr 
of  deaths  ;ind  removals,  in  our  churches!,  has  exceeded  the  nuiiiljer  of  ad- 
<litions.      From  our  statistical  reports,  it  appears,  that,  uithin  the  past 
}eaf,  the  number  of  our  ministers  has  Ijeen  diminished,  hy  six,  and  uf 
<mv  candidates  tor  the  ministry,  by  ten.     In  addition  to  all  this,  the  fie- 
fjiient,  and,  as  it  appears  to  us,  unwise  breaking'  n|)  of  Pastoral  relatiiuis, 
f>f  late,  the  rapid  increase  of  vacant  churches,  and  the  jnanifcst  want  of 
unity,  energy,  and  cheerful  liberality  in  the  support  of  the  gospel,  are 
eviib  already  of  enormous  magnitude,  and  fearfully  ominous  oia  stil!  daik- 
er  day  approaching.     This  state  of  decline,  moreover,  has  Ijeen  going 
on,  for  several  years.     We  have,  now,  witliin  the  l)OU)ids  and  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  our  Synod,  27  vacant  churches; — 6  more  than  we  had  l!\e 
years  ago;  and  some  of  them,  churches  that  have  been  heretoforp  regard- 
ed as  amono:  the  strongest  and  most  flourishin'i  amoji"^  us.     And  v.  hat  is 
f-till  more  alarming,  Vvhilst  this  state  of  things  not  only  continues  among 
us,  but  steadily  increases,  our  people  seem  to  be  recklessly  and  fearful- 
ly indiflerent  to  it;  and  neither  ministers  nor  people  have  liearts  to  piay 
Jil>out  it.     Nor  is  this  all:   For  som<>  si\  or  oi"ht  years  past,  the  number 
<if  revivals  of  religion  within  our  l)cunds,  the  additions  to  our  churches, 
(he  success  of  the  Sabbath-school  cause,  attendance  upon  Bible  class  and 
Catechetical  instruction,  the  amount  of  benevolent  contributions,  the  dis- 
position of  our  young  men  to  devote  themselves  to  the  service  of  C>od  aiui 
i.is  chuich  in  the  work  of  the  ministry,  the  disposition  of  the  peo|)le  to 
•sustain  indigent  candidates  for  the  sacred  ofiice,  and  the  zeal  manifested 
by  both  ministers  and  p>eople  in  the  Temperance  reform,  insUad  of  i)i- 
creasing,  as  the  gnnvth  ot  our  population  and  the  indications  of  l)i\ine 
Providence  have  loudly  demanded,  have,  with  very  few  exceptions,  been 
fcteadiiy  retrograding.      Alread^^  some  of  our  feebler  churches  have  a  mere 
nominal  existence;  whilst  others  have  become  vacant,  front  their  inabili- 
ty to  support  their  Pastors:  and,  in  some  of  the  rest,  there  is  eitjier  such 
a  slate  of  disaffection  towards  the  Pastors,  such  an  enervating  indulgence 
i;i  ])crsonal  animosities  and  family  quarrels,  or,  from  some  otlier  causes, 
jsiich  an  increasing  difficulty  to  secure  the  stipulated  ministerial  suppoit, 
:is  to  render  the  prospects  of  their  Pastors  exceedingly  discouraging  and 
j/recarious.     Under  such  circumstances,  neither  ministers  nor  people 
Know  what  to  expect;    nor  do  they  feel  the  right  sort  of  stimulus,  either 
to  pray  or  to  labour  for  the  building  up  of  the  church.     On  lh<'  contrary, 
ihey  are  both  disheartened,  and  disposed  to  criminate  each  other.     This 
worliof  decay  and  mortification,  though  slow  and  often  imperceptible,  is, 
nevertheless,  progressive  and  certain.     Let  the  present  state  of  things 
continue  a  little  longer,  and  the  weaker  of  our  churches  will  licctime  ex- 
tinct; whilst  the  stronger  will  continue  to  decline  ami  dwindle,  until  they 
become  as  weak  as  the  weakest. 

Beloved  brethren:  We  camn)t  witness  such  tilings,  and  contemplate 
such  prospects  respecting  our  bi-loved  Zion,  without  sdiuiding  an  alarm; 
— without  stating  distinctly,  so  far  as  we  can  ascertain  them,  not  only 
the  languisliing  state  of  ihe  church,  but  the  causes  and  the  remedy. 

We  know,  indeed,  that  rreif/  good  and  j:crj\'d  gift  is  from  above, 
and  conii'th  doun  from  tlir  Valhrr  of  lights,  villi  xiliom  is  no  rariablc- 
ituss,  lu'.illicr  shadow  of  turning;  and  that,  \\  ilh<nit   the  divine  blessing. 


;ill  our  cflurts  to  build  up  Lis  kingdom  amongst  men  must  lie  fruitless. 
^Vo  cannot,  however,  charge  the  decline  of  religion  and  the  barrenness 
of  ordinances  to  the  Author  of  all  good.  We  ace  assured,  that  His  arm 
is  not  shortened  that  he  cannot  save;  neither  is  His  ear  heavy  that  he  can- 
not hear;  but  that  ^in  produces  a  separation  l)et\veen  Uini  and  his  peo- 
ple. The  fault  is  ours; — chargeable  either  to  the  ministers  or  to  the 
people; — most  probably  to  both. 

We  have  most  solemnly  asked  ourselves,  as  v>e,  now  inquire  of  you, 
— Is  the  present  languishing  state  of  religion  among  us,  and  declining 
condition  of  our  churches,  owing  to  a  want  of  faithfulness  i)i  the  exhibi- 
tion and  application  of  appropriate  Bible  truth,  from  the  pulpit,  or  in 
Pastoral  visitations?  Or,  Is  it  owing  to  scandal,  or  gross  inconsisten- 
cies, in  the  lives  of  your  ministers?  As  to  our  professional  performan- 
ces, wc  are  conscious  of  much  imperfection.  I'his,  and  any  want  of 
entire  excmplariness  of  life,  is,  undoubtedl}-,  too  often,  the  legitimate  re- 
sult of  the  Mant  of  a  sufficiently  ardent,  absoj-bing,  and  controlling  pie- 
ty, in  our  own  hearts.  Your  ministers,  then,  need  to  be  revived, — to 
have  the  Holy  .Spirit  poured  out,  copiously,  upon  them:  and,  usually, 
vv'hen  the  people  are  revived,  the  preachers,  as  well  as  the  people,  feel 
it,  and  manifest  it,  as  much  as  any. 

But,  it  sometimes  occurs,  that,  when  we  would  otherwise  fee!  stirred 
up  to  greater  zeal  and  activity  in  our  professional  work,  we  are  discour- 
aged and  disqualified,  by  the  fatigue  and  perplexing  care?  of  employ, 
rnents  that  are  utterly  foreign  from  our  sacred  functions.  To  such  em- 
ployments, Ave  are,  not  unfrequently,  absolutely  drircn,  in  order  to  secure 
a  bare  competent  support,  for  ourselves  and  our  families.  It  is  utterly 
impossible  for  us  to  be  in  a  suitable  frame,  either  intellectually  or 
spiritualh',  to  preach  the  gospel,  either  in  the  pulpit  or  in  the  family. 
when  our  l)odies  are  worn  down  by  secularizing  employments,  or  our 
minds  are  jaded  and  harrassed  by  the  pressm-e  of  debt,  and  the  know, 
icdge,  staring  us  in  (he  face,  that  that  debt  is  enlarging,  our  liabilities 
increasing,  our  families  unprovided  tor,  our  children  growing  up  in 
ignorance,  and  that  a  large  part  of  wiiat  little  we  do  receive  is  paid 
either  grudgingly  or  as  a  mere  charity.  We  affectionately  suggest, 
tlien,  Dear  brethren,  that  fervent  prayers  he  ofiered  to  the  Head  ot"  the 
church,  and  that  appropriate  effijrts  be  made  by  both  ministers  and  peo- 
p\e,  that  the  Lord  would  revive  and  encourage  the  hearts  of  your  Pas- 
tors, and  place  them,  in  every  respect,  in  a  situation,  as  far  as  possi. 
ble,  free  from  world!}-  care,  and  favourable  to  their  official  usefulness. 

Again:  We  would  afiectionately  inquire,' — Is  there  no  delinquency 
ia  duty  among  our  Kuling-Elders, — in  maintaining  a  wholesome  disci- 
]dine  in  the  church,  tor  the  preservation  of  its  purity:  and  in  keeping  up 
and  encouraging  weekly  prayer-meetings,  for  the  comfort  of  the  saints, 
:ind  the  special  beneht  of  the  rising  race?  Are  they  sufficiently  care- 
l"il,  to  see  that  such  meetings  are  attended,  and  conducted  in  an  interest- 
iug  and  edifying  manner?  Are  they  doing  all  they  can,  to  shield  their 
]*ast(irs  from  the  shafts  of  wicked  met!;  to  hold  up  their  hands,  to  second 
their  etibrts,  and  to  carry  out  their  plans  fordoing  good; — for  proumtiui- 
the  intelligence  and  spirituality  of  the  people?  Surely,  we  can  never 
reasonably  expect   religion   to   be  revived,    or  tlie   church   to   tl(juri>h, 


whore  thero  is  little  or  none  of  the  spirit  of  prayer.  Our  God  is  both 
rihic  and  wiliiiig,  to  cause  his  Zion,  though  ever  so  desolate  and  waste, 
to  become  as  the  garden  of  Eden:  But  He  saith  himself  that  He  zcill 
t/ct  for  this  he  inquired  of,  l)y  his  people,  to  do  it  for  them.  And,  are 
not  the  Elders  of  the  church,  men  selected  tor  their  zeal  and  piety  as 
well  as  tor  their  wisdom  and  prudence,  expected  to  be  leaders  and  en- 
fiamples,  in  this  most  important  and  delighttld  exercise?  If,  therefore, 
ihey  are  not  throwing  their  experience,  practical  skill,  and  personal  in- 
liuence,  into  zealous  efforts  to  maintain  weekly  prayer-meetings,  and  to 
render  th(?m  interesting  and  useful,  they  a.re  not  doing  what  the  people 
exp.ect  them  to  do,  what  tliey  might  do,  and  what  their  office  requires 
them  to  do,  as  co-workers  with  their  Pastors,  in  fostering  the  impres- 
sions, which  are  often  produced  by  the  public  and  Parochial  labours  of 
tiu'ir  Pastors,  by  the  Providences  of  God,  and  by  the  common  influences 
of  the  Spirit.  It  is  seriously  feared,  that  the  church  is  suffering,  for 
v.Awi  of  more  social  prayer; — which  always  encourages  fimily  worship, 
and  closet  devotions.  There  are,  probablv,  not  less  than  lour  hundred 
and  thirty  Ruling  Elders,  within  our  l)Ounds.  How  many  weekly 
prayer-meetings  are  there?  If  every  Elder  had  the  spirit  of  prayer, 
and  exerted  himself  to  keep  up  a  well  conducted  prayer-meeting,  might 
we  not  confidently  expect  good  results  soon  to  appear?  Would  not 
tlieir  Pastors  preach  and  pray  more  and  better?  Vfoulrl  not  the  people 
attend  both  Church  and  prayer-meetings  better,  and  he^.r  the  gospel  to 
better  purpose?  Would  not  sinners  Ije  converted,  christians  be  more 
consistent,  and  our  churches  be  more  flourishing? 

}3ut  dear  brethren, — Have  our  private  church  members  no  share  in 
the  guilt  of  bringing  about  the  present  languishing  state  of  our  Zion? 
Is  there  nothing  like  corruptioti,  or  mere  nominal  religion,  in  cur 
ciiurches?  If  a  large  j)roportion,  or  any  considerable  number  of  onr 
ciujrch  members  are  mere  professors  of  religion,  though  ever  so  zealous 
for  an  orth(;dox  creed,  whilst  they  are  strangers  to  experimental  reli- 
gion, having  never  been  born  again; — if  they  attend  ever  so  punctili- 
<;usly  upon  the  outward  and  popular  forms  of  Christianity,  whilst  they 
!<re  igtiorant  and  destitute  of  its  vital  power,  and  neglect  its  practical 
duties, — can  we  expect  the  Church  to  flourish?  If  family  worship  be 
generally,  or  to  any  considerable  extent,  neglected: — if  secret  prayer 
be  but  rarely  practised; — if  personal,  faroilv,  or  neiph!)orhoi>d  giudges 
and  quarrels  be  allowed, — so  that  individuals  and  liimilies  of  the  same 
couununion,  who  arc  brethren  by  profession,  can  say  nothing  but  evil 
of  each  other,  and  never  even  speak  to  oiu'  another; — is  it  any  wonder 
that  the  church  is  in  a  languishing  state?  If  such  be  the  state  of  things 
am  >iig  us,  (and  we  most  ht^utily  wish  there  was  no  evidence  of  such 
Ijeing  the  state  of  things  in  any  j)art  of  our  bounds:)  has  not  the  church 
the  very  elements  of  destruction,  in  her  own  bosoni?  It  is  not  a  novel 
thing  in  the  History  of  the  church,  that  li<>r  pro:;pefts  are  beclou<led,  and 
her  friends  dismayed  by  defeat  and  sore  chastisements,  on  account  of 
some  sin  indulged  in  by  onlv  a  [xtrlion  of  her  members,  and  sometimes 
only  by  a  single  individual.  As  memorable  instances  of  this,  and  solemn 
\\iirnings  to  us,  we  need  only  refer  ynn  to  liie  golden  calf",  the  min'mur- 
ii.!<Toftlie  peoj)!e  of  Israel  in  Kadish,  the  iniquity  of  Peor,  and  the  sin  of 
Aehan.  in  meddling  with  the  accursed  thing.     We  must  ferret  out,  and 


put  away  sin,  if  we  would  have  the  Lord  to  prosper  the  work  of  our  haiuLs. 

In  this  connexion,  we  feel  constrained  to  specity  some  two  or  three 
prominent  and  growing  evils,  which,  we  fear,  have  already  obtained lii 
strong  hold;  and  are  exerting  a  most  withering  influence,  in  the  church. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  we  mention,  the  indulgence  of  a  wordjy  spirit, 
in  the  form  of  selfishness,  avarice,  and  cupidity.  We  are  aware,  tliat 
it  is  difficult,  in  many  cases,  to  distinguish  between  the  operation  of  this 
spirit  and  dire  necessity.  Let  every  one  scrutinize  his  own  motives  on 
this  subject.  But,  whenever  it  is  as  obviously  true  of  professing  chris- 
(ians  as  of  others,  that  every  man  seeketh  his  own,  irrespective  of  his 
neighbour's  wealth;  that  the  constant  and  predominant  current  of  their 
thoughts  and  desires  is  in  the  pursuit  of  wordly  emolument;  that  their 
objects  of  pursuit,  and  plans  of  action,  as  evinced  by  their  daily  conver- 
sation and  conduct,  tend  exclusively  to  the  same  end,  viz:  to  the  acquisi- 
tion and  hoarding  up  of  property,  for  their  own  sensual  enjoyment;  and 
that  it  is  with  manifest  reluctance  that  they  contribute  even  a  pittance 
— (a  mere  mite  in  comparison  with  the  amount  of  their  resources) — for 
the  supj-oi't  of  the  gospel,  or  for  benevolent  purposes; — is  it  any  wonder 
that  religion  languishes,  or  that  the  church  dwindles?  The  influence  of 
such  a  spirit,  not  only  shuts  out  from  the  soul  the  claims  of  benevolence; 
but  it  freezes  up  the  channels  of  charity,  excludes  God  and  religion  from 
the  mind;  keeps  men  too  busy  to  attend  either  upon  family  worship  or 
the  social  prayer-meeting;  prepares  them  to  disregard  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath;  disqualifies  them  for  the  devotions  of  the  sanctuary;  disposes 
them  to  take  unlawful  advantages  in  trade;  and  to  extort,  from  their  fal- 
low-men, in  direct  proportion  to  the  pressure  of  their  necessities.  Thos'e 
who  possess  such  a  spirit,  not  only  fail  to  be  the  salt  of  the  earth  and 
the  light  of  the  world;  but  they  are  spots  in  our  feasts  of  charity,  clouds 
without  water,  trees  whose  fruit  wither  eth,  raging  waves  of  the  sea,  icaii- 
dering  stars,  to  whom  is  reserved,  the  blackness  of  darhness  for  ever. 
Dearly  beloved, — Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the 
world.  If  any  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him. 
And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world;  but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  renew- 
ing of  your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good,  and  acceptable, 
and  perfect  will  of  God.  Lie  not  one  to  another,  seeing  that  ye  have  put 
of  the  old  man  u-ith  his  deeds;  and  have  put  on  the  new  man,  which  is 
renewed  in  knowledge  after  the  image  of  him  that  created  him:  Where 
there  is  neither  Greek  tior  Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision,  Barba- 
rian, Scythian,  bond,  nor  free;  hut  Christ  is  all,  and  in  all.  Put  on, 
therefore,  as  the  elect  of  God,  holy  and  beloved,  bowels  of  mercies,  kind- 
ness,  humbleness  of  mind,  meekness,  long  suffering;  forbearing  one  an- 
other, and  forgiving  one  another,  if  any  man  have  a  quarrel  against  any; 
even  g,s  Christ  forgave  you,  so  also  do  ye.  And,  above  all  these  things, 
put  on  charity,  which  is  the  bond  of  perfectness.  And  let  the  peace  of 
God  rule  in  your  hearts,  to  the  which  also  ye  are  called  in  one  body;  and 
be  ye  thankful.  Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  in  all  wis- 
dom; teaching  and  admonishing  one  another  in  Psalms,  and  Hymns,  and 
Spiritual  Songs,  singing  with  grace  in  your  hearts  to  the  Lord.  And 
whatsoever  ye  do  in  word  or  deed,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jcsus^ 
giving  thanks  to  God  and  the  Father,  by  him. 


8 

2.  Secondly:  Wi;  have  reason  to  fear,  that  the  preaching  of  the 
blessed  j^ospei,  and  the  ordinances  and  privileges  of  God's  house,  an; 
beginning  to  be  greatly  undervalued  by  our  people.  Already,  it  is  but 
too  evident,  that  the  people  feel  no  serious  alarm  when  their  house  of 
worship  is  closed  up,  the  candlestick  of  the  sanctuary  removed  from  a- 
mong  them,  and  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  which  God  has  ordained 
a-!  tlie  principal  means  of  salvation,  is  no  longer  enjoyed  by  them.  For 
the  same  reason,  in  too  many  instances,  vacant  churches, — althougli 
they  are  scattering  and  becoming  weaker  every  day, — seem  to  1)C  con- 
stantly-becoming less  zealous  and  less  united  in  effort,  to  procure,  tur 
themselves,  an  adequate  supply  of  gospel  ministrations.  Hence,  too 
many  who  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel  and  the  privileges  of  the 
church, — persons,  moreover,  who  are  in  far  more  affluent  circumstance;*, 
— regard  it  as  an  intolerable  tax, — a  burden  too  heavy  to  be  borne, — 
to  have  to  pa}',  even  a  tythe  of  what  their  forefathers  paid,  tor  the 
planting  of  the  church,  and  the  support  of  the  gospel.  Perhaps,  they 
have  enjoyed  such  privileges  so  long,  that  they  have  become  surfeited 
with  them.  Let  them  visit  a  new  country,  and  there  witness  the  la- 
nientable  effects  of  a  destitution  of  the  means  of  grace,  and  begin  to  feel 
pinched  with  hunger  for  the  bread  of  lite:  then,  feeling  as  if  they  can- 
not do  without  it,  they  will  be  glad  to  get  that  gospel  which  they  now 
undervalue,  even  by  paying  ten  tinies  the  amount,  w  hich,  at  present,  it 
costs  them.  In  direct  proportion,  moreover,  to  our  valuation  of  gospel 
privileges,  will  our  desires  and  cries  be  poured  (Uit  to  God,  for  his  bless- 
ing to  attend  the  ordinances  of  his  house.  Although  the  gift  of  the  Koly 
Spirit  cannot  be  purchased  with  money;  yet,  so  long  as  professing  chris- 
tians love  their  money  or  property  more  than  they  love  the  means  of 
grace,  or  the  souls  of  their  fellow-men,  they  need  not  expect  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  give  efficiency  to  those  means  of  grace,  either  in  comforting 
their  hearts,  or  in  enlarging  the  church.  As  you  value,  therefore,  the 
souls  of  men,  your  own  true  happiness,  the  salvation  of  your  childreii, 
and  the  best  interests  of  our  beloved  country,  beware  of  uiu'ervaluing 
the  gospel  and  its  ordinances:  guard,  most  sedulously,  against  even  a 
temporary  privation  of  the  healthiul  influences  of  a  stated  gospel  minis- 
try; and,  if  you  are  already  deprived  of  them,  spare  no  pains  to  regaiji 
theui;  and  cease  not  your  prayers  to  God,  both  publicly  and  private!}, 
till  he  shall  send  unto  you,  a  shepherd  af'ler  his  own  heart. 

3.  Thirdly:  The  love  of  novelty  and  change,  instability  and  vacilla- 
tion of  mind,  in  regard  to  the  doctrines,  institutions,  and  mini-try  of  the 
church,  must  he  mentioned,  as  another  growing  evil,  of  disastrous  ten- 
dency. We  fear,  the  scripture  is  about  to  be  fuifilled,  even  among  us. 
whi(;h  says,  ihe  lime  will  come,  when  ihcy  irill  not  endure  xonnd  tloeU-iitc: 
but  after  their  own  lusts,  htirifur  itching  cars,  ihei/  shall  heap  to  tjiein- 
se'res  teachers,  turn  away  their  ears  from  the  truth,  and  be  turned  into 
fables.     This  spirit  has  already  begun  to  do  its   work   among  us;   and, 

men,  under  its  inlhienee,  whenever  there  is  a  protracted  nuM^ting,  or  u 
strangt'  |)rea(-lier  within  re;ich,  will  leave  the  mo.sf  I'aithful  Pastor  to 
preach  to  vacant  seats  and  empty  walls.  And  what  is  still  worse,  this 
spirit  will  drive  from  their  homes,  however  comfortable,  and  from  their 


9 

iiclds  of  labour,  however  important  and  inviting,  the  best  of  men,  hov.'. 
ever  eminent  for  piety,  sound  in  doctrine,  and  indefatigable  in  duty;  for 
no  other  cause  than  the  desire  of  change,  the  love  of  novelty,  or  the 
hope  of  having  the  ear  tickled  by  the  popularity  of  a  new  preacher. 
This  disposition  to  set  aside  the  Pastoral  office  at  pleasure,  and  to  pre-t 
for  an  itinerating  ministry,  is  diametrically  oppos-id  to  one  of  the  most 
prominent,  distinctive,  and  vitally  important  features  in  our  Presbyterian 
system,  and  to  the  great  design  of  the  Pastoral  office,  as  instituted  by 
Christ;  and  frauglit  with  most  dangerous  consequences.  It  has  already 
hegini  to  threaten  our  churches;  and  while  it  continues  among  us,  v,'e 
need  expect  little  else  than  desolation. 

Upon  this  subject,  we  cannot  forbear  giving  you,  in  full,  the  views 
and  cautions  of  the  American  Home  Missionary  Societ}',  as  the  result 
of  their  long  experience  and  extended  information,  as  published  in  the 
Annual  report  of  the  Central  Agencv,  in  the  State  of  New  York.  May 
1837. 

'We  consider,'  say  that  Society,  'the  frequent  changing  of  ministers 
■so  destructive  an  evil,  that  we  are  constrained  to  invite  the  attention  of 
tour  Missionaries  and  churches  to  the  following  considerations,  in  the 
hope  that  they  will  ponder  the  subject  thoroughly;  and,  by  the  grace  cf 
Cod,  be  guided  in  the  path  of  dutj-. 

'I.  We  will  mention  a  tew  of  tJie  ways,  in  which  a  minister,  viho 
.means  to  be  a  Pastoj-,  is  injured  by  frequently  changing  his  field  of  ia,- 
bour. 

'1.  It  increasca  the  expenses  of  his  family.  None  of  our  ininisters 
Tcceive  more  for  their  services  than  enough  to  meet  the  necessary  er- 
^jenses  of  the  year.  Every  removal,  by  loss  of  time  and  consumption 
•of  property,  increases  his  expenses,  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  dollars. 
This  must  embarrass  him,  and  diminish  his  usefulness. 

'2.  Neglect  of  study  is  another  evil  tendency  of  a  changing  ministrj'. 
In  this  day  of  commotion  and  reading  of  ephemeral  productions,  theje 
ure  but  few  ministers  of  sufficient  self-command  to  pursue  a  course  of 
Theological  research,  which  requires  mental  agony,  but  which  is  indhs- 
pensable,  would  they  grow  in  knowledge  and  be  able  to  feed  their  flock, 
— so  long  as  they  can  depend  upon  the  labours  of  former  years.  We 
are  aware,  that  some  churches  prefer  to  have  their  ministers  spend  the 
whole  year  in  visiting.  Experience,  however,  proves,  that,  with  few 
exceptions,  a  people  never  know  the  worth  of  their  minister,  until  the 
last  old  sermon  is  used  up,  or  burnt  up;  and  he  begins  to  draw  afresh, 
from  the  stores  of  eternal  tnith,  things  new  and  qld.  Such  a  people  may 
know  what  they  have  got;  but  they  never  can  know  what  they  have  lobt. 

'3.  It  diminishes  a  minister's  consciousness  of  responsibility i  and  makes 
him,  indiferent  about  the  distant  results  of  his  labour.  A  minister  is  a 
man  of  like  passions  with  others;  and  needs  every  possible  influence,  to 
induce  him  to  seek  the  path  of  duty,  and  hold  hira  in  it.  We  cannot 
doubt,  that  the  perpetually  recurring  thought, — ^ I  shall  probably  remain 
here  but  a  year"  will  tend  to  make  him  reckless.  How  is  it  possible 
to  avoid  it?  A  man,  were  he  as  pure  as  an  angel,  needs  the  hope  of 
success,  as  well  as  the  love  of  doing  good,  to  kindle  his  zeal,  and  prompt 
him  to  watchfulness,  forethought,  and  industry.     But  often,  he  is  a  mero 


10 

annual  hiroling,  \vitli  but  a  few  moiitlis'at  most,  to  Ijegin  and  close  iip 
all  hiri  labours,  in  a  given  place.  And  the  agreement  which  holds  hiiu 
there,  has,  on  the  face  of  it,  evidence,  that  his  people  legard  him  \viti» 
verv  little  confidence;  and  iiis  prospects  are  withering,  rather  than  re- 
freshing. VV'e  need  not  wonder,  if  a  man  held  by  the  church  in  such 
circumstances,  should  do,  or  neglect  to  do,  what  would  render  him  un- 
popular, or  his  labours  unproductive. 

'4.  /'  prevents  a  minister  from  ca7-n/ing  into  effect  any  important  plan 
for  galJicriiig  and  building  up  a  congregaUon.  Would  he  accomplish, 
what  a  minister,  b}-  the  grace  of  Ciod,  may  do,  all  the  various  circuiu- 
stances  and  wants  of  the  whole  church  and  congregation  are  to  be 
sought  out; — tlie  childrea  and  youth  are  to  be  gathered  around  him  and 
taught  t(j  remember  their  Creator; — parents  are  to  be  instructed  how  U* 
command  their  children  and  househ(;lds  to  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord; — 
the  church  is  to  be  purilied  by  discipline;  her  understanding  eiilighten- 
ed;  her  •affections  directed;  her  energies  combined;  and  all  her  power;! 
enlisted  in  the  enterprize  of  the  world's  conversion.  Who  can  acconi- 
plish  such  a  work,  in  one  year, — or  two  years, — or  five  years?  How- 
ls it  possible  for  a  man,  even  the  best,  to  clear  and  prepare  the  soil, 
sow  the  seed,  and  bring  in  the  ripe  harvest,  short  often  or  lifteen  years? 
He  may  do  something,  yea  much,  but  can  he  shew  what  a  faithful  Pas- 
tor is  capable  of  doing?  Can  he  carry  a  church  through  the  school  uf 
Christ?     Can  he  train  a  generation  for  the  service  of  God? 

'5.  It  prevents  a  minister  from  acquiring  the  habit  of  patient  endu- 
rance, which  is  so  important  to  an  Ambassador  of  Christ.  A  ministei-, 
who  would  exert  a  solid,  holy,  and  lasting  influence  in  the  world,  may 
depend  upon  being  severely  tried.  He  cannot  escape  trials  by  chang- 
ing places.  They  niust  and  will  come.  If  he  attempt  to  run  away  fr(»ni 
them,  and  be  overtaken  at  last,  he  will  be  likely  to  imbibe  a  petulant 
and  tliuit-linding  spirit.  If  he  meet  them  manfully,  and  endure  tliom 
paiiently,  it  will  chasten  his  spirit,  and  incr(?ase  his  meekness.  Tin? 
easiest  way  to  dispose  of  jninisterial  trials,  Avhatever  be  their  nature  or 
magnitude,  is  to  endure  them.  The  habit  of  endurance,  whicli  this 
course  will  strengthen,  greatly  diminishes  the  severity  of  trials;  and,  in 
the  apprehension  of  the  subject,  it  will  probably  diminish  their  number. 
But,  what  is  of  more  importance  still,  trials,  well  endured,  raise  a  min- 
ister vastly  in  the  estimation  of  his  people,  while  they  increase  his  con- 
fidence in  the  grace  of  God;  and  thus,  the  way  is  prepared  for  his  v\- 
crling  a  niore  powerful,  salutary,  and  permanent  influence. 

'jl.  We  will  now  name  a  few  of  the  ways,  in  which  a  church  is  in- 
jured, by  frequently  chahging  their  minister. 

1.  //  uill,  almost  invariably,  lead  to  the  neglect  of  discipline.  Th:.'< 
is  une  of  the  most  important  and  painful  duties  a  minister  has  to  per- 
f. -rm.  When  he  supposes  his  residence  with  a  people  is  merely  tcin. 
P'trary  it  has  often  presented  a  fatal  temptation  to  pass  over  this  self- 
i'-nying  duty.  His  successor  takes  the  same  course,  until  that  church, 
vl.ioii  might  have  been  united,  flourishing,  and  strong,  is  alienated, 
f<"\\    and  feelile. 

•j.  It  tends  to  divide  and  distract  a  church.  Some  churches  scom  <o 
imagine,  that  the   most  safe   and  certain   way  to  dispose  of  the  great 


11 

mass  of  tlioir  parish  difficulties,  is  to  dismiss  their  minister,  especially 
iiiiiiy  serious  op[)osition  appears  against  him.  But  the  people  of  CtO(1 
anay  never  hope  to  get  a  minister  who  will  build  them  up,  w  ithout  llicii- 
:u'e  tried  and  proved,  as  well  as  their  minister.  They  must  he  u- Hit. 
}iiin,  and  licartily  with  him.  They  must  labour  vi'ith  him,  aiid  suflei- 
M'ith  him;  or  the  cause  of  christ  must  sutler,  and  languish,  aiid  dii'. 
l\ow,  suppose  that  a  congregation  has  secured  a  minister,  and  a  faitli- 
ful  one:  Suppose  that  congregation  is  in  the  habit  of  dismisising  their- 
niinister  as  often  as  any  serious  difficulty  arises;  and  suppose  the  truth 
<'f  God  has  chafed  the  consciences  of  some  of  the  people,  so  that  they 
leel  uneasy;  What  is  the  consequence?  These  restless  spiri-ts  know, 
what  has  been  done,  more  than  once,  in  similar  circumstances:  By  ^: 
jitfle  ar;f  il  manoeuvering,  the  minister  has  been  dismissed.  Their  course 
is  plain;  and  their  work  is  easy.  They  know  the  church  will  not  en- 
dure hardness,  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Clir'isi;  but  will  siirink  from 
-opposition  raised  against  their  minister;  and  though  they  profess  to  love 
liim,  will  part  with  him,  rather  than  do  their  duty.  Some  of  the  church, 
however,  are  willing  to  hazard  any  thing  uecessar}"  to  retain  him:  but, 
he  must  go,  leaving  the  church  to  contend  about  him.  When  such  a- 
ricene  has  been  acted  over,  again  and  again,  and  another,  and  sti'i 
another  party  is  formed  in  a  church,  their  affections,  instead  of  being 
united  and  settled  upon  one,  are  divided  among  nearly  as  many  minis- 
ters, as  there  are  members  in  the  church. 

'3.  It  mukes  them  fastidious  and  fault-finding.  Called  as  often  a"s 
s(ime  of  our  churches  are,  to  hear  candidates,  (not  for  settlement,  but  I'o 
ho  hired  for  a  year  oi*  two,)  they  unconsciously  acquire  the  habit  <!f 
criticizing  every  thing  (hey  see  a  minister  do,  or  hear  him  say.  And 
;is  one  great  object  of  changing  is,  to  get  something  now, — something 
that  will  arrest  attention,  they  are  led  to  attach  an  undue  importance  to 
novelty;  and  this  l)egets  a  disposition  not.  to  be  satisfied  wilh  any  thing; 
Tiiis  habit,  aside  from  its  destiuctive  influence  in  neutralizing  the  trutli. 
iias  led  the  way  to  numerous  complaints,  which  have  been  the  cause  of 
bitter  regret  to  the  authors  of  them;  and  have  injured  the  reputation  and- 
wrung  the  heart  of  many  an  affectionate  minister. 

'4.  It  precents  a  church  from  acquiring  that  confd('nce  in  her  iniuis- 
tcr,  u'hich,  next  to  the  truth  of  God,  is  one  of  the  most  powerftd  and  de-' 
lighiful  instruments  of  Pastoral  usefulness.  When  a  minister  has  been 
in  a  congregation  for  a  course  of  years;  has  often  wCpt  with  those  that 
Mcep,  and  rejoiced  with  those  that  rejoice;  mingled  in  ail  their  families,- 
and  sympathized  with  them  in  the  various  circumstances  through  whiciv 
they  have  passed;  the  people  then  begin  to  know  h'trn,  and  love  him,  and' 
confide  in  him,  as  tlit'ir  Pastor.  When  he  has  followed  the  child  froni 
the  Baptismal  font,  with  the  instructions  and  counsels,  warnings  and  pn-; 
tieaties  of  a  yearning  Father;  been  with^him  when  convicteid;  answered 
ids  inquiry, —  What  shall  I  do  to  he  saved? — led  him  in  prayer  when  lie' 
knew  not  how  to  pray;  and  mingled  his  tears  of  joy  with  the  penitent' 
'»)ef()re  the  mercy  seat; — that  jonth  will  never  forget  his  iPastrtr.  Hi*' 
knows  his  Pastf»r  loves  him.  No  voice  is  more  sweet  to  hirii,  than  tli'e- 
one  which  taught  him  how  to  be  saved.  When  a  cohgregatioii  has 
beeii  thus  educated  by  their  Pastor;  when  they  have  tried  him  arid  prove  J 


12 

him;  v.hon  they  have  laboured  Avith  liim,  and  wept  with  him,  and  re- 
joiced with  him;  when  they  have  seen  and  I'eh  liis  sahitary  inliuence  on 
their  own  souls,  in  every  family  and  every  depaitment  of" society; — they 
reverence  and  love  him  as  children  do  an  affectionate  Father;  and  are 
prepared  to  tijjlow  him,  as  their  spiritual  guide.  But  frequent  changes 
forbid  the  formation  of  this  endearing  bond;  and  shut  out  a  people  from 
its  benign  influence. 

'5.  It  destroys  the  character  of  a  church.  It  is  not  yet  to  be  learned, 
that  a  church  has  a  character,  as  well  as  a  ruiiiis^ter.  It  is  not  unfre- 
quently  that  we  hear  the  tbllowing  inquiries,  when  persuading  a  minis- 
ter to  go  to  a  particular  church, — Have  they  ever  had  a  settled.  Pastor? 
Do  they  often  change  miidsters?  Do  you  know  whether  they  wish  to  hire 
hy  the  year,  or  to  settle?  These,  and  similar  inquiries,  are  made,  to  de- 
cide one  question;  viz:  Can  I  be  useful  there]  If  a  minister,  espe- 
cially  one  of  the  better  sort,  get  the  impression,  that  the  people  are  slow 
to  settle  a  Pastor,  and  rather  contemplate  changing  once  in  a  year  or  two, 
he  will  be  likely  to  pity  the  people;  but,  despairing  of  success,  he  will 
pass  on.' 

Dear  Brethren:  We  cannot  close  this  communication,  without  solemn- 
ly cautioning  you  against  all  those  forms  and  systems  of  error,  that  are 
beginning  to  be  propagated  among  us,  which  either  exclude  or  under- 
value the  old-fashioned,  but  fundamental  scriptural  doctrines  of  Original 
sin;  total  depravity;  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  change  of  heart;  regene- 
ration by  the  Holy  Spirit;  justification  by  the  imputed  righteousness  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and  good  works,  as  tljc  indispensalile  evidence  of 
a  man's  being  in  a  state  of  grace: — which  set  forth  Baptismal  regene- 
ration, sacerdotal  forgiveness  of  sin.  Baptismal  justification;  and  sacra- 
mental confirmation,  as  an  easier  and  more  fashionable  way  of  sah  ation; 
which  lay  claim  to  Apostolic  succession  in  office,  and  the  exchisive  right 
of  interpreting,  if  not  of  reading  the  holy  scriptures,  as  well  as  of  admin- 
istering divine  ordinances;  and  which  urge  men,  as  the  step  of  paramount 
importance,  to  join  the  church,  as  a  means  of  giace; — or,  as  tlie  only  way 
of  safety,  to  come  into  the  church,  hy  Prclatical  Baptism  and  Confirma- 
tion, irrespective  of  their  principles  and  of  their  lives.  Think  not,  wo 
beseech  you,  that  there  is,  or  can  be  any  easier  way  of  salvation  than 
that  which  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus  hath  taught  us,  by  newness  and 
Jioliness  of  life,  through  faith  in  his  name.  Guard  against  these,  and 
tlieir  kindred  errors,  however  arrogantly  and  pompously  they  may  be 
urged  upon  you,  by  men,  enrobed  in  bigotry,  and  of  exclusive  pretensions. 
•  They  are  the  abominations  of  Rome,  in  Pusyitish  dress;  and  they  are  pru- 
pagater!,  with  all  the  zeal  and  dexterity  of  primitive  proselytism. 

Finally,  Brethren, — If  you  would  be  joyfiil  in  the  Lord;  if  you  woulti 
see  your  children  and  servants  growing  up  around  yon,  as  fruitfid  plants 
in  his  vineya«"d;  if  you  would  have  the  candlestick  .of  the  sanctuary  to 
continue  its  light,  and  to  shine  inorc  and  njore  brightly  among  you;  if  ymi 
would  have  the  church  of  («od  revived,  enlarged,  encouraged,  and  efli- 
cicnt; — the  salt  of  the  earth, — the  light  of  the  world;  if  you  would  hav(^ 
the  world,  which  lieth  in  wickedness,  converted  to  (umI; — we  solemnly 
charge  you,  to  seek,  with  all  diligence,  a  more  elevattKl  and  active  gradt- 
of  piety:     Be  more  frequently  and  more  importunate  in  your  closets;  let 


the  Iioly  srriptiiros  be,  more  scnipulou.sly,  tho  daily  lani|)  to  your  It'ct,  ajid 
light  to  your  path;  lot  hrotherly  loi-e  he  vitliuuC  ilissimiiUukni;  a.sf?ociiiU' 
yourselves  rnoro  frequpiitly  together,  i\)V  social  prayer  and  soleuin  praise; 
ninintaiii  a  higher  standard  ot"iiimi!y  religion;  pay  special  atteiition  to  the 
religious  instiuc'tiou  ot'your  children  and  servants;  diill  them,  more  tho- 
roughly, aftertlie  example  ormir  tbrc-fathers,  in  the  excellent  standards 
and  catechisms  of  our  church;  maintain  a  constant  and  strict  observance 
ot'lhc  Sal)b;ith;  aiid  especially,  give  the  honour  which  is  due  to  the  iioly 
Wpir.it,  and  to  Him  alone; — recognise  Flini,  distinctly  and  habitually,  in 
liis  divinity,  personality,  and  appropriate  work; — cherish  an  abiding  seii>e 
ot'  absolute  dependence  upon  his  agency; — and  seek,  most  fer\('nt;y,  in 
l!ie  diligent  use  of  the  means  of  grace,  a  speedy  and  a  mighty  effusion  of 
his  sacred  influences. 

And  n(uv,  may  that  God  who  hath  all  heart;-  in  his  Isand,  and  w};o 
conducteth  them  whithersoever  he  will,  as  the  livers  of  \'\aterare  turiieii, 
incline  your  hearts,  to  the  cheerful,  willing,  and  habitual  exercise  (*f  e'>ery 
grace  and  virtue  which  adorns  the  character  of  his  own  children;  and  may 
Jle  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  nork  io  do  his  will,  uo7-lang  in  yon, 
Ihal  icJtich  is  iccll  pleasing  in  his  sight  ihrough  Jesus  Ciikisx,  to  whom 
be  glory  for  ever  and  ever,  AME?r.  » 

By  order  of  the  Svnod. 

SAMlUi'L  WILLIAMSON,  Moderator. 

Charlotte,  N.  C.  Nov.  lOlh,  1845. 


THANKSGIVING   DISCOURSE, 


DELIVERED  IN  THE 


[pSBsiD'tr^iriEiEafikEi  gasiEsa: 


RALEIGH  K  C, 


ON  THTJRSDAY,  THE  27th  NOVEMBER,  1851, 


BY 


REV.  DRURY  LACY,  PASTOR. 


PUBLISHED    BY   REQUEST. 


■■•♦•■ 


RALEIGH,  N.  C. 

Printed  by  Seaton  Gales.  "Eegister"  Office. 

1851. 


©©lR^li^©[M©iff^©[ 


•  •rrt*r*^\444t« 


Raleigh,  Nov.  29,  1851. 
Rev.  Drury  Lacy: 

Dear  Sir: — The  undersigned  listened  with  great 
gratification  and  pleasure  to  your  eloquent  and  excellent 
discourse,  delivered  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  on  Thurs- 
day last,  Thanksgiving  Day. 

They  take  an  early  occasion  to  express  to  you  their  con- 
viction of  the  great  good  it  is  calculated  to  accomplish,  in 
arousing  the  people  to  a  fuller  sense  of  their  obligations  to 
perpetuate  that  priceless  legacy  of  our  forefathers — the 
Union  ;  and  to  beg  that  you  will  furnish  a  copy  for  publi- 
cation. With  great  respect, 

Your  ob't  serv'ts, 
SEA.TON  GALES,  DABNEY  COSBY, 

JOHN  PRIMROSE,  JAMES  M.  TOWLES, 

L.  E.  HEARTT,  R.  E.  MADDOX, 

ALEX.  M.  M'PHEETERS,      J.  BROWN, 
W.  R.  MILLER,  R.  H.  BATTLE. 


Manse  of  the  Pres.  Church, 
29th  Nov.,  1851. 
Gentlemen  :  I  submit  to  your  disposal,  the  discourse 
v/hicli  you  request  for  publication.  If  it  should  be  the 
means  of  arousing  our  people,  in  any  degree,  to  a  sense  of 
their  obligations  to  the  Ruler  of  Nations,  and  increasing 
their  value  of  the  inestimable  blessings  of  the  Union,  it  will 
fully  answer  the  end  which  I  aimed  to  accomplish.  I  am 
not  insensible  to  the  favorable  opinion  you  have  expressed, 
in  thinking  it  at  all  adequate  to  this  purpose,  and  yield  to 
your  judgment  rather  than  to  my  own,  in  furnishing  you  a 
copy  for  the  press.  I  am,  very  respectfully 

and  truly,  your  friend  and  servant, 

DRURY  LACY. 
To  Messrs  Gales,  Cosby,  Primrose,  Towles,  Heartt,  Mad- 
dox,  McPheeters,  Brown,  Miller  and  Battle. 


[B  a  as  ©  0  [Es 


•  ♦  > 


*  In  pursuance  of  a  resolution  passed  by  the  General  Assembly  at  the  Session  of  1843-3, 
1  do  by  this,  my  Proclamation,  set  apart  Thursday,  the  27th  of  November  next,  to  be  ob- 
■scrved  throughout  the  State  as  a  day  of  solemn  and  public  THANKsemNQ ;  and  I  do  ear- 
nestly recommend  that  all  secular  employments  be  suspended  during  the  day ;  that  Min- 
isters of  the  Gospel  of  the  respective  denominations  assemble  their  congregations  for  pub- 
lic worship,  that  the  people  of  the  State  may,  with  united  hearts  and  voices,  render  thanks 
to  Almighty  God  for  past  blessings,  and  supplicate  a  continuance  of  his  cares  and  kindness 
towards  us  as  a  People,  as  a  State,  and  as  a  Kepublic. 

Given  under  my  hand,  and  the  Great  Seal  of  the  State,  at  the  Executive  Office  in 
[SBAL.]         the  city  of  Kaleigh,  this  the  15th  day  of  October,  A.  D.  1851,  and  the  76th  of 
American  Independence.  DATID  S.  REID." 

[Governor's  Proclamation.] 

Wk  are  happy  in  the  privilege  of  meeting  you  to-day,  my 
Brethren,  summoned  as  we  are  by  this  Proclamation  of 
his  Excellency,  our  Governor,  to  contemplate  the  blessings 
of  our  lot,  and  to  give  thanks  to  God  our  benefactor.  And 
we  are  happy  in  the  thought,  that  nearly  every  State  in  the 
Union,  by  a  previous  arrangement  made  between  its  chief 
Executive  officer,  has  fixed  on  this  day  for  the  purpose  ; 
and  that  our  country  now  presents  the  delightful — the  sub- 
lime spectacle,  of  assembling  before  the  Maker  of  Heaven 
and  earth,  to  lift  up  their  hearts  and  voices  to  Him,  in 
thanksgiving  and  praise. 

The  year  which  has  elapsed  since  we  were  last  con- 
vened for  a  similar  purpose,  has  been  distinguished,  not 
only  by  the  continuance  to  us  of  our  ordinary  mercies,  and 
by  the  increase  of  our  national  prosperity,  but  by  peculiar 
tokens  of  the  favor  of  Heaven.  Although,  throughout  a 
large  section  of  our  country,  the  labors  of  the  husbandman 
have  not  met  with  their  usual  returns,  nor  have  the  win- 
dows of  heaven  opened,  as  in  former  years,  and  poured  a 


4  THANKSGIVING    DISCOUnSE. 

profusion  into  our  dwellings ;  yet,  for  the  absence  of  suf- 
fering for  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  for  the  possession  of 
the  means  of  comfortable  subsistence, — for  the  possession 
of  health  throughout  our  borders, — for  the  blessings  of  do- 
mestic and  social  life,  and  of  a  free  and  enlightened  Gov- 
ernment,— for  our  spiritual  privileges  and  hopes, — for  these 
things  we  are  bound  to  render  thanks  to  Him  from  whom 
we  have  received  them.  And  frozen  must  be  our  hearts, 
if  these  blessmgs,  enjoyed  in  so  high  a  degree  by  us,  do  not 
awaken  in  our  bosoms  some  suitable  sense  of  the  Divine 
Goodness,  and  excite  us  to  pour  forth  our  praises  to  the 
God  of  our  mercies. 

There  is  no  nation  on  earth,  for  which  God  has  done  so 
much  in  so  short  a  time,  as  he  has  done  for  these  United 
States.  From  its  earliest  history  to  the  present  day, — in 
every  season  of  danger,  whether  from  an  enemy  without^ 
or  from  dissensions  within,  "  God  has  been  our  refuge  and 
Defence,  our  Glory,  and  the  Lifter  up  of  our  head."  In 
every  foreign  war  in  which  we  have  been  engaged,  he  has 
crowned  our  arms  with  victories  the  most  signal  and  de- 
cisive. He  has  kept  us  from  the  confusion  and  tumults 
and  miseries  of  civil  strife.  He  has  preserved  us  from  be- 
ing involved  in  the  broils  and  bloodshed  of  Europe.  He 
has  sweetened  all  these  mercies  by  fixing  us  in  the  secure 
enjoyment  of  every  privilege  our  hearts  can  wish.  He 
has  given  us  the  everlasting  Gospel,  we  trust,  in  its  purity, 
and  has  been  inviting  us  by  the  allurements  of  his  love,  to 
the  enjoyment  of  his  rest.  Behold  the  Divine  clemency 
with  which  he  has  distinguished  us  from  other  nations ! 
Several  countries  on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Atlantic  have 
scarcely  time  to  breathe,  much  less  to  recruit  from  the 
wounds  and  sufferings  of  one  revolution,  before  they  are 
plunged  into  another.  It  is  a  foul  stain  on  the  civilization 
of  Europe,  as  well  as  an  awful  judgment  for  her  sins,  that 
she  is  almost  continually  weltering  in  blood.  Her  infatua- 
ted sons  fly  to  arms,  and  slaughter  each  other  as  the  ca- 
price or  politics  of  their  tyrants  ordain.     Torn  with  intes- 


THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE.  & 

tine  faction, — heaving  Vi^ith  convulsions  and  revolutions 
like  the  throes  of  an  earthquake,  how  many  of  these  terri- 
ble eruptions  have,  more  generally  or  partially,  flooded 
their  curses  on  Europe,  within  our  memory.  How  envia- 
ble our  condition  in  the  comparison!  How  gentle  the  dis- 
pensations of  God  towards  us  !  Why  do  we  prosper,  while 
other  lands  are  rent  with  fightings  without  and  fears  with- 
in ?  Why  does  not  the  sword  thin  our  faniilies,  and  hew 
down  our  gallant  youth?  Why  are  we  permitted  to  till 
our  grounds  without  molestation,  and  to  eat  the  fruit  of  our 
industry  ?  Why,  through  the  medium  of  commerce,  to 
keep  up  an  amicable  and  lucrative  intercourse  with  distant 
places?  Why  to  dot  the  land  all  over  with  establishments 
of  labor-saving  machinery?  Why  to  "  speed  the  car,  and 
stretch  the  whispering  wires"  over  land  and  sea,  and  build 
our  cities  and  dig  our  gold  ?  Why  to  foster  the  arts  of 
peace,  which  refine  the  manners,  and  improve  the  mind  ? 
Why  to  assemble,  without  interruption  or  fear,  in  the  house 
of  God,  to  sing  His  praises,  to  supplicate  His  favor,  to  learn 
the  words  of  everlasting  life  ?  Is  it  because  we  are  better 
than  they  ?  No !  in  no  wise.  It  is  undeserved  mercy, — 
it  is  because  "  the  Lo7-d  has  shown  his  favor  unto  us." 

Without  dwelling  on  many  of  these  things,  which,  how- 
ever worthy  of  our  thankful  acknowledgement,  occupy  on- 
ly a  middle  or  inferior  place  in  the  scale  of  national  bene- 
fits, allow  me  to  direct  your  attention  to  one  distinguish- 
ing blessing,  which  cannot  be  passed  over,  without  fixing 
upon  us  the  stigma  of  base  ingratitude  ; — I  mean  our  de- 
liverance from  civil  discord. 

Since  our  last  day  of  Thanksgiving,  the  nation  has  been 
in  a  state  of  agitation,  and  of  the  most  anxious  expecta- 
tion as  to  the  result  of  events  then  in  progress.  Need  I  re- 
mind you  that  this  dreadful  plague  was  at  our  doors  ?  Have 
you  forgotten  the  chilling  anticipations  which  but  lately 
obtruded  themselves  unsought,  on  your  minus?  Already 
did  the  phrenzied  imagination  display  those  scenes  of  hor 
ror,  at  the  bare  thought  of  which  the  heart  shudders.     A1-- 


0  THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE, 

ready  did  we  hear  the  burst  of  hostile  thunder  : — already 
did  we  see  members  of  the  same  family  arraying  themselves 
against  each  other  in  murderous  strife  : — our  cities  and  our 
dwellings  sinking  in  flames,  and  our  families  fugitives  from 
the  smouldering  ruins.  But  the  storm  has  blown  over  and 
done  no  harm.  The  sound  of  alarm  has  died  away  on  the 
ear.  All  is  serene,  all  secure.  This  day  is  witness  that 
peace — domestic  peace  dwells  in  our  land,  and  enjo'ys  the 
quiet  exercise  of  her  confirmed  reign.  Give  glory  to  Him 
who  hath  commanded  deliverance.  "  O  bless  our  God,  ye 
people,  and  make  the  voice  of  his  praise  to  be  heard,  who 
holdeth  our  soul  in  life,  and  sufFereth  not  our  feet  to  be 
moved." 

Tremendous  as  foreign  war  is,  it  is  infinitely  preferable 
to  domestic  discord.  Internal  union  is  the  bond  of  social 
strength.  When  mutual  confidence  has  fled,  and  coldness, 
and  jealousies,  and  criminations,  and  menaces  come  in  its 
place ;  when  professed  anxieties  for  the  public  welfare  de- 
generate into  the  strife  of  sectional  policies  ;  and  unanim- 
ity of  measures  gives  way  to  the  violence  of  faction,  the 
firmest  sinews  of  the  national  energy  are  cut,  and  the  rich- 
est veins  of  national  prosperity  sluiced. 

It  was  a  serious,  it  was  an  awful  thing,  to  behold  in  one 
direction,  a  large  extent  of  our  country,  including  great 
numbers  of  inhabitants,  throw  off  submissioti  to  the  law, 
and  rise  in  the  contumacy  of  a  determined  resistance  to 
rightful  authority ;  and  to  behold  in  another  an  entire  state 
vexed  and  goaded,  as  they  allege,  by  unjust  encroachments 
and  oppressive  exactions  on  their  sovereign  and  indepen- 
dent rights,  deliberately  planning  an  organised  dismember- 
ment of  these  States.  Nor  was  it  easy  to  calculate  what 
would  be  the  extent  of  the  calamity,  or  what  its  issue. 
Men  of  similar  habits  and  in  similar  circumstances  readily 
unite  in  similar  undertakings.  But  here,  we  beheld  ex- 
tremes meeting  in  the  same  nefarious  work  of  ruin,  men  of 
the  most  opposite  interests  and  views,  materials  the  most 
discordant  and  hetero£jeneous  harmonizing  in  the  same  dark 


THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE.  7 

designs.  "  Herod  and  Pontius  Pilate  made  friends !" 
Cherished  by  the  wicked  assiduity  of  those  sons  of  Belial 
who  had  been  industrious  in  creating  it,  the  dissension, 
spreading  like  a  flame  through  the  dried  leaves  of  Autumn, 
might  have  divided  the  children  of  the  same  great  brother- 
hood, not  into  the  parties  of  opinion,  but  into  the  armies  of 
civil  war.  Oh,  how  would  despots  have  exulted  in  this  con- 
sequence, as  the  ruin  of  the  fairest  experiment,  which  the 
sun  ever  beheld, — of  a  government  reared  on  the  equal  rights 
of  man !  But  to  their  confusion  and  our  triumph,  the 
tumult  has  subsided.  The  voice  of  the  people,  "  like  the 
sound  of  many  waters,"  has  proclaimed,  We  love  this 
Union  ;  while  the  temperate,  yet  firm,  the  vigorous,  yet 
unbloody  manner  in  which  this  most  unnatural  treason  was 
subdued,  and  is  still  kept  down,  is  fraught  with  delight  to 
ourselves,  and  has  filled  the  whole  nation  with  admiration 
and  applause.  To  those  patriots  of  every  political  creed, 
to  those  judicial  officers,  whose  unflinching  firmness  and 
unblenched  dignity,  have  enforced  the  sovereignty  of  law, 
in  the  very  face  of  reckless  mobs,  and  the  unsparing  abuse 
of  fanatics,  the  tribute  due  to  their  spirited  exertions  is 
cheerfully  paid.  Above  all,  whatever  may  be  our  preju. 
dices  or  predilections,  our  eyes  involuntarily  turn  and  fas- 
ten on  that  man,  whom  "God  has  made  strong  for  himself" 
to  meet  the  appalling  exigency;  on  that  man  whom  God 
has  raised  up  and  honored  to  be  the  instrument  of  so  rich 
a  blessing  to  this  land,  and  whose  name  will  live,  and  whose 
memory  will  be  revered,  with  the  names  and  memories  of 
his  renowned  predecessors. 

A  greater,  a  more  useful  political  lesson  was  never 
taught.  It  is  the  victory  of  principle  over  passion,  of  order 
over  confusion,  of  laws  over  licentiousness.  What  a  lesson 
to  our  country — a  lesson  which  will  remain  to  the  end  of 
time  inscribed  upon  their  hearts.  What  a  lesson  to  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  to  behold  our  country,  passing  safely 
through  the  severest  trials  that  ever  tested  the  attachment 
of  a  nation  to  its  institutions,  without  shedding  one  drop  of 


8  THANKSGIVIXG    DIBCOUBSB. 

blood,  gathering  fresh  strength  at  every  step  of  its  mighty 
progress,  and  enthroning  itself  more  steadfastly  in  the  con- 
fidence and  affections  of  its  people !  What  precious  proofs 
that  the  nation  means  to  act,  not  only  well,  but  nobly ;  so 
that  they  who  see  that  parties  and  leaders,  as  such,  are  to 
a  deplorable  extent  corrupt,  are  obliged  to  admit,  that  the 
mass  of  our  people  of  all  parties  love  their  country,  and  are 
werthy  of  their  liberties. 

The  facts  now  mentioned  are  luminous  events,  which, 
at  present,  absorb  in  their  lustre  all  other  political  incidents 
relating  to  us.     "  Fools  make  a  mock  at  fear,"  and  may  i 
disregard  the  danger  and  the  deliverance,   "  but  the  wise 
will  ponder  them  in  their  hearts,"  and  never  forget  them. 
They  cannot  but  fix  in  astonishment  the  gaze  of  the  most  i 
careless,  and  impress  the    hearts  of  the  most  hardened. 
How  powerful  obligations  of  gratitude  to  our  God  are  ere-  i 
ated  by  such  an  interposition,  will  appear  from  contempla- 
ting the  singular  mercies  of  that  providential  dispensation 
from  which  they  flowed.     Sources  of  illustration  on  this 
topic,  are  numerous  and  fruitful.     You  will  all  acknowledge. 
That  the   imininent  danger  in  which  we   lately  were, 
highly  exalts  the  mercy  of  our  deliverance. 

However  imagination  might  depict  the  horrors  of  a  dis. 
union  before  they  had  a  real  existence,  yet  the  strong  ap- 
prehension of  their  approach  was  not  chimerical.  Affairs 
in  the  north  and  in  the  south  were  fast  verging  to  a  dread- 
ful crisis.  I  need  not  repeat  the  causes  of  their  apprehen- 
sion— of  their  dreadful  foreboding.  They  are  familiar  to 
you  all,  for  they  were  not  done  in  a  corner,  but  in  the  open 
light  of  day,  and  are  known  and  read  of  all  men.  But  in 
order  that  you  may  realize  the  danger,  you  must  contem- 
plate the  actual  state  of  the  public  mind,  wrought  up  to 
frenzy  by  the  unruly  and  turbulent  passions  of  men.  Be- 
sides the  ringleaders  and  instigators  of  such  scenes,  there 
are  in  every  community  multitudes  who  have  a  much 
greater  share  of  good  intention  than  discernment.  Their 
honest  credulity,  unguided  by  judgment  and  untempered 


THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE.  9 

with  caution,  draws  them  into  the  plots  of  others  whose 
less  upright  principles  take  an  eager  advantage  of  their 
simplicity.     An  appeal  to  popular  prejudice — to  a  fanatical 
philanthropy  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  sectional  jealousies 
and  State  pride  on  the  other,  each  calculated  to  influence 
popular  passion — is  an  engine  which  the  crafty  demagogue 
is  ever  ready  to  employ,  and  generally  finds  effectual,  for 
enlisting  both  under  the  banners  ot  treasonable  resistance. 
Unhappily,  this  engine  was  used  by  both  sections  with  con- 
summate skill  and  prodigious  effect ;  and  it  was  this  draw- 
ing in  of  such  immense  masses  of  pliant,  unsuspecting,  but 
well-intentioned  citizens,  that  gave  so  fearful  an  aspect  to 
the  threatening  danger.     Besides  this,  there  will  ever  be 
some  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  to  whom,  from  natural  un- 
happiness  of  mind,  from  a  restless,  discontented  temper,  or 
from  less  venial  causes,  order  will  be  imprisonment,  and 
peace  a  torture  ;  some,  who  sicken  to  see  the  gallant  ves- 
sel of  State  riding  securely  at  anchor,  or  flitting  before  the 
favoring   gale,  and    who  watch  with  eagerness  for  an  ad- 
verse blast  to  dash  her  on  the  reef,  that  while  the  crew 
perish  in  the  waters,  they  may  pillage  the  wreck.     The 
mischievous  projects  of  such  as  these,  aided  by  the  impru- 
dent zeal  of  others,  one  would  think,  might  of  themselves 
be  sufficient  to  bring  on  the  dreaded  catastrophe.     But 
when  we  add  to  their  machinations,  all  the  exasperating  cir- 
cumstances that  gave  strength  to  their  counsels,  and  color 
to  their  pretexts,  it  seems  little  short  of  a  miracle  that  we 
have  escaped.     We  stand  astonished  at  the  precipice  over 
which  we  were  nearly  hurried,  a  precipice  that  would  have 
plunged  us  into  evils  for  which  their  immediate  authors 
could  never  have  atoned  ;  no,  not  with  their  lives.     It  was 
God's  unspeakable  mercy  that  interfered  to  save  us  ;  and 
the  greater  our  danger,  the  more  beneficent  was  the  inter- 
ference, and  the  more  precious  the  salvation.     Surely  "  He 
hath  not  dealt  so  with  any  other  nation."     "  Praise  ye  the 
Lord." 

Again  ;  the  complicated  evils  which  attend  any  war,  hut 


10  THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE. 

especially  a  war  between  brethren,  show,  in  a  most  affecting 
light,  the  mercy  which  has  prevented  them.  These  evils 
both  political  and  moral,  it  would  require  a  volume  fully  to 
enumerate  and  to  display.  Nor,  were  it  possible,  would  I 
now  undertake  to  unfold  them.  But  horrid  as  foreign  war 
is,  it  is  infinitely  to  be  preferred  to  domestic  discord.  War 
among  brethren  has  peculiar  miseries.  Experience,  that 
faithful  teacher,  has  shown  that  the  wounds  inflicted  by 
civil  strife  are  far  deeper,  and  of  more  difficult  cure,  than 
any  that  can  be  received  from  the  hand  of  foreign  violence. 
"  A  brother  offended  is  harder  to  be  loon  than  a  strong  city  ; 
and  their  contentions  are  like  the  bars  of  a  castle."  The 
murderous  tempers  which,  in  other  wars,  are  indulged,  in 
this,  are  wrought  up  to  the  height  of  fury.  Resentments 
are  more  keen,  revenge  more  implacable,  and  hatred  more 
lasting.  The  aggressor  is  more  injurious,  and  the  injured 
more  unforgiving.  Amidst  mutual  reproaches  and  accu- 
sations of  violating  the  most  solemn  compact,  the  most  sa- 
cred ties  that  can  bind  men  together,  they  appear  to  each 
other,  wretches  unworthy  of  esteem,  and  incapable  of  faith. 
Reconciliation  is  hard  to  be  effected,  and  when  effected,  is 
scarcely  ever  sincere.  The  body  politic  may,  indeed,  re- 
assume  its  healthful  complexion,  but  the  poison,  rankling 
within,  is  ready  to  burst  out  with  renewed  violence ;  for 
we  find,  in  fact,  that,  when  men  have  once  broken  the  cords 
of  amity,  they  are  easily  impelled  to  repeat  the  sacrilege. 
It  is,  moreover,  a  melancholy  reflection,  that  it  makes  but 
little  diflerence  to  the  community  at  large,  how  the  quar- 
rels of  contending  parties  are  decided.  Whoever  is  victo- 
rious, or  whoever  is  vanquished,  all  suffer.  While  they 
struggle  against  each  other,  they  rend  the  vital  system  by 
which  all  are  nourished ;  and  the  triumph  of  any  over  the 
rest,  is  but  the  success  of  a  mad  conspiracy  against  them- 
selves. Pregnant  with  these  great  futurities,  the  phenome- 
na of  God's  providence  bid  us  prepare  for  their  awful  de- 
velopment ;  and  each  succeeding  day,  bringing  with  it  new 
discouragements,  led  us  to  contemplate  an  issue  as  terrible 


THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE.  11 

as  it  was  near.  But  while  at  a  distance  the  thunders  mut- 
tered ;  while  our  heavens  blackened,  and  the  clouds  fraught 
with  wo  stretched  over  our  heads  ;  while  our  citizens,  the 
most  of  them  in  utter  carelessness — some  in  trembling 
anxiety, — some  in  their  closets  on  their  knees, — some  in 
sullen  suspense,  were  expecting  their  fate,  God — ^for  surely 
it  was  the  work  of  no  created  wisdom  or  power — God  sent 
help  from  his  holy  hill.  The  arm  of  vengeance  raised  by 
brother  against  brother,  to  hurl  the  wrathful  bolt,  he  has 
arrested.  Through  the  opening  gloom,  the  light  of  his  de- 
liverance beamed,  and  so  brilliant  was  the  interposition, 
that  nothing  but  atheistic  impiety  could  forbear  exclaim- 
ing:  ''This  salvation  is  from  the  Lord."  That  heart  which 
is  not,  in  any  degree,  melted  by  such  goodness,  must  lie 
uuder  the  curse  of  triple  hardness.  "  The  Lord  hath  not 
dealt  so  with  any  other  nation."  Other  nations  have  per- 
ished by  the  frown  of  the  Eternal,  and  their  memorial  blot- 
ted from  under  heaven.  But  we  are  spared,  are  pi'otected, 
are  prospered.  This  lenity  is  divine.  Because  the  Lord 
delighteth  to  do  us  good,  is  he  thus  indulgent.  "  Praise  ye 
the  Lord." 

And  now,  my  Brethren,  since  "  the  Lord  hath  done  great 
things  for  us,  whereof  we  are  glad,"  how  shall  we  express 
our  gratitude  ?  What  shall  we  "  render  to  Him  for  all  his 
benefits  ?"  Taking  that  "  cup  of  salvation"  which  his  own 
hand  hath  tendered  to  us,  let  us  "  call  upon  his  name." 
This,  beyond  controversy,  is  an  immediate  and  essential 
part  of  our  duty, — to  pay  Him  explicit  and  public  homage; 
to  recognise^  hy  devout  and  marked  acknowledgment,  our 
dependence  on  his  favor,  and  the  blessings  we  have  reaped 
from  his  protection. 

There  is  a  religion  of  society,  as  such  ;  a  tribute  of  rev- 
erence which  it  owes  the  living  God.  Formed  under  his 
auspices,  and  nurtured  by  his  care,  preserved  by  his  power, 
and  replenished  with  his  bounty,  he  requires  from  us,  on 
these  accounts,  social  worship  and  the  social  vow.  The 
honor  of  his  sovereign  rule  he  cannot  relinquish,  and  the 


12  THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE. 

confession  of  it  we  may  not  withhold.     It  is  true  that  our 
excellent  Chief  Magistrate,  in  the  critical  circumstances  in 
which  he  was  thrown,  has  displayed  in  a  conspicuous  man. 
ner,  those  governmental  virtues  which  are  at  once  the  duty 
and  glory  of  his  official  pre-eminence.     The  other  Magis- 
trates, too,  both  executive  and  judicial,  who  acted  in  con- 
cert with  him,  have  imbibed  the  spirit  of  their  station,  and 
showed  themselves  a  "  terror  to  evil-doers."     And  the  srreat 
mass  of  our  public  men  and  fellow  citizens,  whose  patriotic 
efforts  have  aided  in  quieting  the  public  agitation,  and  re- 
storing  good  order,  have  brought  into  splendid  action  the 
principles  of  men  who  enjoy  true  liberty,  and  know  how 
to  value   and   defend  it.     They  have  all  deserved  well  of 
their  country  ;  but  their  exertions,  laborious,  disinterested, 
sublime  as  they  are,  would  have  been  utterly  fruitless,  with- 
out the  countenance  of  Him,  who  is  "  Governor  among;  all 
the  nations."     Let  us  not,  therefore,  rest  in  second  causes, 
nor  limit  our   praises  to  human  in  struments.     Let  us  not 
disregard  them,  but  look  beyond  them.     Let  us  make  our 
boast  in  God,  who,  in  the  day  of  trouble,  covered  us  with 
the   shield  of  his    omnipotence.     "  If  it  had  not  been  the 
Lord  who  was  on  our  side," — now  may  our  countrymen 
say, — "  if  it  had  not  been  the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side, 
when  men  rose  up  against  us,  then  they  had  swallowed  us 
up  quick,  when  their  wrath  was  kindled  against  us ;  then 
llie  waters  had  overwhelmed  us,  the  stream  liad  gone  over 
our  soul :  then  the  proud   waves  had  gone  over  our   soul. 
Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord,  who  hath  not  given  us 
a  prey  to  their  teeth.     Our  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird  out  of 
the  snare  of  the  fowlers  :  the  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are 
escaped.     Our  help  is  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  who  made 
heaven  and  earth."     Therefore,  "give   unto    the  Lord,  O 
ye  kindreds  of  the   people,  give  unto  the  Lord  glory  and 
strength.     Give  unto  the  Lord  the  glory  due  unto  his  name  ; 
bring  an  offering,  and  comjc  into  his  courts  with  thanks- 
giving.    O  worship  the    Lord  in  the  beauty  of  holiness  j 
fear  before  him,  all  ye  people  !' 


THANKSCIYINC    DISCOURSE.  '      13 

Another  becoming  expression  of  our  gratitude  to  God,  for 
the  goodness  which  he  has  shown  is,  to  do  all  in  our  power 
for  the  preservation  and  perpetuity  of  this  glorious  repuh' 
lie,  for  ourselves,  for  our  children,  and  for  the  world. 
God  has  not  given  us  this  great  inheritance,  either  to  be 
undervalued  or  thrown  away.  The  history  of  our  nation 
from  the  earhest  dawn  of  its  existence  to  the  present  day, 
is  indicative  of  some  great  design  to  be  accompUshed  by 
it.  It  is  a  history  of  perils  and  deliverances,  and  of  strength 
ordained  out  of  weakness.  No  nation  on  earth,  out  of 
weakness,  ever  became  so  strong,  nor  was  ever  guided 
through  so  many  perils  to  so  lofty  an  eminence.  But  in 
the  whole  history  of  the  world,  God  has  not  been  accus- 
tomed to  grant  such  signal  deliverances,  without  ends  of 
corresponding  magnitude  to  be  answered  by  them.  Indeed, 
if  it  had  been  the  design  of  heaven  to  establish  a  powerful 
nation,  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
where  all  the  energies  of  man  might  find  scope  and  full  de- 
velopment, on  purpose  to  show  to  the  world  by  experiment, 
of  what  man  is  capable ;  and  to  shed  light  on  the  darkness, 
which  should  awake  the  slumbering  eye,  rouse  the 
torpid  mind,  and  nerve  the  palsied  arm  of  millions  ; — where 
could  such  an  experiment  have  been  made,  but  in  this 
country,  and  by  what  means  so  well  adapted  to  that  end, 
as  by  otir  institutions  ?  Who  can  doubt,  from  the  course 
now  adopted  and  prosecuted  by  Christians  of  every  name* 
to  support  and  extend  at  home  and  abroad,  religious  and 
moral  influences,  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  God  to  render  this 
nation,  to  a  wide  extent,  the  almoners  of  his  bounty  to  the 
world  ?  Behold  the  means  which  he  has  committed  to  us 
for  this  purpose.  He  has  given  us  a  model  government, — ^ 
the  envy  and  the  admiration  of  mankind.  He  has  given 
us  perfect  liberty  of  conscience, — "  freedom  to  worship 
God."  He  has  given  us  two  great  national  institutions— 
the  one  to  disseminate  his  Word, — the  other,  to  scatter  the 
messages  of  salvation  like  leaves  of  the  forest, — the  glory 
of  our  land.    Besides  which,  every  denomination  of  Chris'» 


=  14  THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE. 

tians  has  its  own  distinctive  organizations,  that  make  it 
their  business  to  see  that  every  family  has  a  Bible,  and 
every  church  a  pastor,  and  every  child  a  catechism,  so 
that  our  nation  may  not  outgrow  the  means  of  religious 
instruction.  And  while  these  means  of  moral  culture  are 
supplied,  this  great  nation,  from  her  eminence,  begins  to 
look  abroad  with  compassion  upon  a  world  sitting  in  dark- 
ness, and  to  put  forth  her  mighty  arm  to  disenthral  the  na- 
tions, and  elevate  the  family  of  man.  And  when  we 
contemplate  the  unexampled  resources  of  this  country  in 
men,  soil,  climate,  sea-coast,  rivers,  lakes,  canals,  railroads, 
agriculture,  manufactures,  commerce,  arts  and  wealth,  and 
all  these  in  connexion  with  the  influence  of  republican  and 
religious  institutions,  is  it  too  much  to  be  hoped,  that  God 
will  accept  this  powerful  instrumentality,  and  make  it  ef- 
fectual for  the  renovation  of  the  world  ? 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  world  is  already  looking  to  us, 
and  feeling  the  power  of  our  example.  There  is  now  a 
public  opinion  of  the  world — a  moral  sense  of  nations. 
Our  example  is  even  now  telling  with  mighty  mfluence  on 
the  destiny  of  the  human  race.  If  we  consider  the  im- 
mense extent  of  our  territorial  possessions, — the  vastness 
of  our  country,  washed  as  it  now  is,  by  the  two  great 
oceans  on  the  east  and  west,  and  stretching  from  the  lakes 
of  the  north  to  the  Gulf  of  the  south, — if  we  consider, 
also,  our  proximity  to  the  South  American  Sta:es,  and  the 
close  imitation  they  are  disposed  to  make  of  our  civil  and 
literary  institutions,  who  can  doubt  that  the  light  of  our 
example  will  yet  illumine  this  entire  continent  ?  And  when 
the  light  of  such  a  hemisphere  shall  go  up  to  heaven,  it 
will  throw  its  broad  beams  beyoud  the  waves, — it  will 
shine  in  the  darkness  there,  and  be  comprehended, — it  will 
awaken  desire,  and  hope,  and  effort,  and  produce  revolu- 
tions and  overlurnings,  until  the  world  is  free.  Behold 
what  is  already  done  !  From  our  revolutionary  struggle, 
proceeded  the  great  revolution  in  France,  and  all  which  have 
followed  in  Spain  and  Greece,  and  Sardinia,  and  Italy,  and 


THANKSGIVING    DISCOURSE.  I5 

Hungary.  And  what  though  the  bolt  of  every  chain  has 
been  again  riveted,  and  clenched  ?  They  can  no  more 
hold  down  the  heaving  mass,  than  the  chains  of  Xerxes  could 
hold  the  Hellespont,  vexed  with  storms.  What  though  floods 
have  been  poured  upon  the  rising  flame  ?  They  can  no 
more  extinguish  it,  than  they  can  extinguish  the  fires  o 
iEtna.  Still  it  burns,  and  still  the  mountain  heaves  and 
murmurs  ;  and  soon  it  will  explode  with  voices,  and  thun- 
derings  and  great  earthquakes.  Then  will  the  trumpet  of 
jnbilee  sound,  and  earth's  down-trodden,  debased  millions 
will  leap  from  the  dust,  and  shake  off"  their  chains,  and  cry, 
"Hosanna  to  the  Son  of  David." 

But  to  accomplish  these  changes  in  the  civil  and  religious 
condition  of  the  world,  revolutions  and  convulsions  are  in- 
dispensable— nay,  as  man  is,  are  inevitable.  Tyrants  will 
not  let  go  their  hold  of  power,  without  a  desperate  effort  to 
retain  it.  The  usurpation  by  the  few,  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  many,  will  not  be  spontaneously  or  wil- 
lingly relinquished,  nor  the  chains  knocked  off"  from  ihe 
body  and  the  soul  of  man,  by  the  hands  which,  for  ages, 
have  done  nothing  but  rivet  them.  "  He  that  sitteth  upon 
the  throne,  must  overturn,  and  overturn,  and  overturn," 
before  his  rights  and  the  rights  of  man  will  be  restored. 
Revolution  must  come,  of  course,  and  such,  too,  as  shall 
veil  the  sun,  and  turn  the  moon  into  blood,  and  shake  the 
earth  with  the  violence  of  nation  dashing  against  nation, — 
until  every  despotic  government  shall  be  thrown  down,  and 
chaos  resume  its  pristine  reign, — until  the  Spirit  of  God 
shall  move  again  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,  and  bring  out 
a  new  creation.  The  day  of  vengeance  is  in  his  heart,  and 
is  no  doubt  begun,  and  will  no  doubt  continue,  until  "  He 
that  sitteth  upon  the  throne  shall  have  made  all  things 
new." 

.  My  hearers !  we  indulge  in  no  idle  visions  of  the  future, — 
we  dare  not  presume  to  scan  the  purposes  of  Deity,  We 
can  only  speak  of  the  future  from  the  past ;  but  judging 
from  the  past,  are  we  not  right  in  saying  that  God  would 


16  THANKSGIVING    DiacOURSE. 

have  us  take  courage   from  the  events  of  his  providence 
we  have   been  reviewing  this  day,  and  that  he  has  taught 
us  by  these  events,  and  his  signal   interposition  in  our  be- 
half, to  repose  a  more  unreserved  confidence  in  the  purity 
and  stability  of  our  institutions  than   ever   before  ? — and 
that  he  has,  as  it  were,  re-committed  them  again  to  us,  in 
trust  for  the  benefit  of  man  ?     But  suppose  we  are  mista- 
ken ? — suppose  the  scenes  through  which  we  have  passed, 
are  but  the  precursors  of  others  still  more  terrible  to  come  ? 
— or  suppose,  that  in  the  long   lapse  of  ages,  the  pillars  of 
our  glorious  fabric  shall  fall  and  crumble  in  the  dust ;— for, 
remember,  we   cannot  blunt  the   iron  tooth  of  time,  nor 
break  his  leaden  sceptre,  under  which  all  former  States,  and 
all  possible   institutions  have  been  broken  and  consumed, 
and  to  which  all  that  shall  yet  arise  may  be  obliged  to  pay 
the    same    fearful    tribute. — What    then?      There   is   a 
mighty  influence  which  time  itself  cannot  weaken — which 
long  ages,  as  they  pass,  hardly  dilute.     Generation  sweeps 
after    generation   in    its    brief   career,   as    wave    chases 
wave  on  the  bosom  of  the  deep,  and  when  each  dashes 
on  the  shore,  it  is  lost  forever.     But  the   spirit  that  per- 
vades these  fleeting   and    nameless   generations  perishes 
not  in    those   whose  breasts   it  ruled,  nor   passes    away 
with  the   monuments  erected  to  illustrate  and  enlarge  its 
reign.     Here  our  work  for  good  is  immense,— is  almost  im- 
mortal.    The  laws  of  Solon  are  laws  no  longer ;  his  people 
have  for  ages  scarcely  known  his   name,  and   for  twenty 
centuries   the   principles  of  his  polity  have  been  banished 
from  his  native  city.     Yet  the  spirit  of  the  Athenian  peo- 
ple,— of  their  laws,   their  liberty,  their   institutions,  and 
their  literature,  has   influenced   every  succeeding  genera- 
tion, and  at  this  hour,  burns  more  brightly,  and  warms  the 
heart  more  intensely  than  in  the  freest  and  most  glorious 
days  of  Greece.     So,  too,  shall  it  be  with  this  great  Repub- 
lic.   The  names  of  its  wise  and  virtuous  citizens,  except 
a  very  few,  must  be  forgotten  ;  the  details  of  its  thrilling 
and  romantic  history  may  perish,  leaving  behind  only  the 


grand  outline  01"  its  origin,  ita  struggles,  and  liz  tiiurnpha  ; 
its  simple  and  noble  monuments  may  all  decay — nay,  even 
its  glory   may  be   obscured,  its  strength  depart,  its  sacred 
principles  be  all  subverted,  and  the  plough-share  of  ruin  bo 
driven  deep  and   wide  through  its  sacred  bosom.     Alas  ! 
that  were,  indeed,  a  sad  day  for  man.     But  supposing  all 
this — supposing  the  worst ;  even   then,  we  shall  not  have 
lived  in  vain.     There  is  one  name   which  shall  ever  live. 
The  name  of  Washington  will  electrify  all  coming  ages, 
and  in  the  shock  of  battle  nerve  the  arm,  and  in  the  day  ©f 
triumph  rule  the  evil  passions  of  all  who  struggle  for  liberty. 
The  light  oi  our  glorious  career  will  forever  illuminate  the 
path  that  leads  the  weak  and  the  oppressed  to  freedom, 
strength  and  boundless  prosperity.     The  spirit  of  our  laws 
and  institutions  will  abide  upon  earth,  the  redeeming  spirit 
ot  succeeding  times,  resisting  all  the  eiforts  of  ignorance, 
barb;irism  and  tyranny — living  in  the  very  core  of  the 
world's  heart,  and  defying  all  attempts  to  extirpate  it ;  until 
the  whole  mass  shall  be  warmed  and  enlightened,  and  the 
flame,  like  that  the  Ancients  fabled,  shall  break  forth  at 
once  in  ten  thousand  places,  and  fill  the  earth  with  bright- 
ness.    Our  times,   our  country,  our  institutions  alike  call 
us  to  this  glorious  destiny.  Let  us  fulfil  it.  We  are  heredita- 
ry freemen.     The  blood  of  the  Angles,  the  Normans,  the 
unconquered  Saxons  before  whom  Caesar  and  Charlemagne 
alike  recoiled,  mingle  their  heroic  currents  in  our  veins, 
along  with  that  great  barbaric  stream  which  Rome  herself 
could  not  withstand.    These  are  our  primeval  sires.    After 
them,  the  founders  of  English  liberty  in  the  glorious  Com- 
nionwealih.     And  then  the  men  of  '76 — their  immediate 
sons.      Heritage — descent — destiny,   alike  glorious.     Yes, 
we  tell  it  thankfully,  firmly,  joyfully  ;  we  are  the  great  in- 
heritors of  hnman  freedom,  and  we  intend  to  transmit  the 
sacred  treasure  to  our  children's  children,  untarnished  by 
a  single  blot,  undiminished  by  a  single  particle.     We  re- 
vere our  fathers'  memory,  we  cherish  the  deeds  of  our  great 
ancestors,   wq  love  this  Ujvtow,    the  purchase  of  their  toils 


•> 


13  TUANKSGIVrNG    DISCOURSE. 

and  praj'ers,  and  tears,  and  cemented  by  their  blood ;  wor 
look  upon  it  as  the  Sun  in  the  Zodiac,  or  rather  as  "  the 
blue  sky  which  bendelh  over  all ;"  we  know  the  day  of  our 
visitation  ;  we  thank  God  for  his  boundless  mercies,  and 
by  his  grace,  we  mean  to  be  faithful  to  our  lot,  just  to  tho 
glorious  past,  true  to  the  still  more  glorious  future.  This 
is  the  deep,  indwelling,  unalterable  purpose  of  twenty  mil- 
lions of  souls.  Thirty-one  republics  into  which  they  are 
scattered,  are  but  so  many  dispersed  centres  to  preserve 
and  perpetuate  this  high  sentiment.  The  great  nation 
which  these  unitedly  form,  has  for  it  mission  the  public  ex- 
hibition and  illustration — in  the  presence  and  for  the  benfit 
of  universal  man — of  the  excellence,  the  strength,  and  the 
blessedness  of  freedom.  And  even  now,  one  continent  is 
redeemed  to  suffering,  struggling  humanity ;  redeemed  from 
the  common  lot  of  down-trodden  man,  and  set  forth  in 
impregnable  strength  and  ravishing  beauty,  the  first  fruits 
of  a  world  rousing  itself  up  from  the  stupor  of  sixty  centu- 


li  - 


POLITICS  AND  THE   PULPIT: 


JL     DISCOURSE 


PEEAOHED   IN   THE 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  NORFOLK,  VA., 


ON 


THURSDAY,  NOVEMBER  27,  1856. 


BY 


GEO.   D.   ARMSTRONG,   D.D.,  Pastor. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST  OF  THE  CONGREGATION. 


NORFOLK,  Va.  : 
J.   D.   GHISELIN,  Jr.,    BOOKSELLER. 

1856. 


W.  H.  TinoH.  Priater  and  Sttreotyper,  14  Beekman  St.,  N.  T. 


DISOOXJUSE. 


-*►- 


"  I  WILL  WASH  MT  HANDS  IN  INNOOENOT  :  SO  WILL  I  COMPASS 
THINE  ALTAE,  O  LOED  :  ThAT  I  MAT  PUBLISH  WITH  THE  TOIOE 
OF  THANKSGIVING,  AND  TELL  OF  ALL  THY  WONDROUS  WOBKS." 

Psalm  xxvi.  6,  7. 

We  are  gathered  in  God's  house  to-daj,  that  we 
may  render  thanks  to  him  for  the  mercies  of  the 
passing  year. 

How  widely  different  the  circumstances  in  which 
we  assembled  here,  a  year  ago  ;  at  the  close  of  "  the 
summer  of  the  Pestilence."  The  Chief  Magistrate  of 
this  good  old  Commonwealth  had  then  recommended 
the  observance  of  a  day  of  thanksgiving  throughout 
our  borders.  In  every  other  part  of  the  State,  the 
heart  of  man — the  Christian  man — was  attuned  for 
the  service.  JSTo  enemy  at  home,  or  abroad,  thi-eat- 
ened  our  peace.  The  seasonable  alternation  of 
shower  and  sunshine  had  caused  the  earth  to  yield 
abundantly,  an  increase  of  the  seed  sown.  The 
harvest  had  been  gathered  in,  and  the  barns  were 


4  POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT. 

full.  Shielded  by  the  good  providence  of  God,  and 
blessed  of  him,  the  patriarch  father  might  gather 
around  him,  in  the  old  homestead,  his  children  and 
his  children's  children : — and  only  here  and  there, 
would  there  be  a  vacant  seat, — only  now  and  then, 
would  one  return,  with  sad  step  and  slow,  to  tell  of 
bereavement. 

Such  was  not  our  lot.  "We  had  occasion  to  thank 
God  that  we  were  not  consumed.  In  honesty,  we 
were  constrained  to  confess,  that  even  in  our  sore 
chastisement,  "  God  had  not  dealt  with  us  after  our 
sins,  nor  rewarded  us  according  to  our  iniquities." 
Tet  the  language  of  thanksgiving,  in  view  of  God's 
dealings  with  us  during  the  year,  was  not  the  lan- 
guage of  our  hearts.  Judah  will  not  fail  to  praise 
God,  even  in  a  strange  land.  As  she  sits  down,  in 
her  captivity,  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  she  will 
sing, — ^but  not  the  glad  songs  of  Zion.  "  How  can 
she  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land  ?"  She 
will  sing, — but  not  the  jubilant  psalm  her  lips  were 
wont  to  utter  as  she  entered  the  Temple,  at  Jerusa- 
lem,— 'tis  a  plaintive  melody  which  falls  upon  the 
ear.  "  If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,"  is  the  burden 
of  her  song.  In  the  strong  and  simple  faith  in  God, 
his  goodness  and  his  grace,  which  angels  feel ;  which 
the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  feel,  we  may, 
and  doubtless  will,  "  rejoice  always."     But  here,  on 


POLITICS   AKD  THE   PULPIT.  5 

earth,  the  song  of  thanksgiving  grates  upon  the  ear 
of  him  who  sits  beside  his  desolate  hearth-stone : — 
Tears  will  fill  even  the  eye  of  faith,  as  it  rests  upon 
the  new-made  graves  of  the  household.  Abraham, 
that  mighty  man  of  faith,  "  mourned  for  Sarah 
and  wept  for  her,"  as  he  stood  at  the  cave  of  Mach- 
pelah. 

In  what  contrast  with  all  this,  the  circumstances 
in  which  we  assemble  to-day.  Kot,  that  we  have 
forgotten,  or  would  forget,  those  whose  loss  we 
mourned  a  year  ago.  But,  blessed  be  God !  it  is  a 
law  of  our  nature,  that  time  shall  assuage  the  poig- 
nancy of  mortal  grief.  It  is  a  law  of  God's  spiritual 
kingdom  too,  that  as  tears  wash  out  the  natural  eye, 
and  cleanse  its  vision,  so  shall  they  also  cleanse  the 
vision  of  "  the  eye  of  faith." 

The  present,  is  a  period  of  unexampled  health  in 
this  our  city.  In  the  three  months  last  passed,  I 
have  been  called  to  bury  no  member  of  this 
church  : — And  in  all  the  families  connected  with  the 
congregation,  there  has  been  but  one  death,  that  of 
a  child  seven  years  old.  'Never,  before,  since  I  have 
been  pastor  of  this  church,  have  I  been  able  to  tell 
of  such  mercy  as  this. 

Our  city,  too,  in  its  commercial  interests,  seems  to 
have  recovered  from  the  shock  it  received  a  year 
ago.      Our  harbor,  has  been  sought   by  as  many 


b  rOLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT. 

sail, — our  -wharves  have  been  as  crowded, — and, 
our  streets  as  thronged,  as  in  former  years.  The 
eje,  sees  but  little  if  any  difference  between  the 
Norfolk  of  to-day,  and  the  Norfolk  of  two  years  ago. 
Whilst  some  foreboded  ruin  for  us,  ^  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  ravages  of  the  pestilence, — many 
of  us,  more  hopeful,  had  confidence  in  the  recupera- 
tive powers  of  our  city  : — But  did  any  of  us,  as  we 
beheld  the  desolations  made  in  our  midst,  anticipate 
so  rapid  a  recovery  as  that  we  see?  The  tornado 
sweeps  o'er  a  forest-land  ;  and  a  scene  of  wreck  and 
ruin  marks  its  track.  The  tall  oak,  of  a  hundred 
summers,  lies,  shattered,  beside  the  shoot  of  a  single 
season,  crushed  in  its  fall.  But  the  dews  of  heaven 
descend,  and  God's  showers  are  poured  upon  this 
ruin.  The  riven  trunk  clothes  itself  in  verdure 
anew ;  the  undergrowth,  bent  and  bruised,  springs 
back  to  its  natural  position  again, — and  in  the 
period  of  one  short  "  circle  of  the  seasons,"  so 
changed  is  the  scene,  that  the  eye  of  the  stranger 
detects  no  trace  of  the  tornado.  In  the  memory  of 
the  past,  alone,  does  it  live  as  a  reality.  The 
scarred  heart,  alone,  now,  bears  marks  of  the  pesti- 
lence. 

In  view  of  all  these  mercies — this  good  providence 
of  the  Lord  our  God — should  not  we,  his  people, 
"  compass  his  altars "  this  day,  and  "  publish  with 


POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT.  7 

the  voice  of  thanksgiving,  and  tell  of  all  his  won- 
drous works  ?" 

The  blessings  bestowed  upon  us,  as  a  city,  are  not 
the  only  blessings,  for  which  we  have  occasion  to 
render  thanksgiving  to  God,  to-day.  During  the 
past  summer,  our  country  has  passed  safely  through 
a  political  struggle — perhaps  the  most  threatening — ■ 
certainly,  the  most  bitter,  any  of  us  have  ever 
seen. 

A  threatening  struggle, — threatening  the  Confede- 
racy of  these  our  States.  It  is  not  my  purpose, 
standing  in  the  pulpit,  to  discuss  the  nature  or  the 
value  of  that  Confederacy.  Such  themes  as  these 
befit  not  the  place.  Granting,  as  every  reflecting 
man  must  grant,  that  circumstances  may  arise,  in 
which  ihQ  patriot,  and  the  Christian,  as  a  choice 
between  evils,  will  rather  give  up  our  Union,  than 
encounter  the  yet  greater  evils  at  the  cost  of  which 
it  may  be  possible,  alone,  to  preserve  it, — yet,  I 
speak,  I  know,  the  thought  of  every  one  of  you, 
when  I  say,  that  the  severance  of  this  Union,  in 
itself  considered,  is  an  evil  which  he  must  be  infa- 
tuated who  would  make  light  of.  The  ties  which 
bind  us,  North  and  South,  together,  God  forbid  that 
we  should  ever  learn  their  strength  in  the  breaking ! 
Our  Confederation,  the  deep  foimdations  of  which 
were  laid  "  in  days  of  old," — the  convulsions  which 


8  POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT. 

will  be  mighty  enough  to  overturn  it,  will  shake  this 
land  to  its  very  centre. 

The  summer  is  passed — and  the  glorious  old 
banner  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  given  to  the  breeze 
amid  the  prayers  and  sacrifices  of  men  who  loved 
their  country  well  and  wisely — blessed  be  God  !  yet 
floats  before  the  eyes  of  the  nations.  No  star  has 
been  blotted  from  its  azure  field.  'No  hostile  shot 
has  torn  a  stripe  of  the  old  bunting.  No  foeman's 
hand  has  trailed  its  glories  in  the  dust.  "We  were 
born  under  its  shadow ;  and  under  that  shadow 
would  we  die,  and  there  would  we  be  buried.  It 
sheltered  our  childhood's  helplessness ;  and  we  would 
have  our  children,  and  our  children's  children  shel- 
tered there  too. 

Through  this  threatening  struggle  we  have  safely 
passed : — perhaps,  I  ought  rather  to  say,  having  an 
eye  to  the  possibilities  of  the  future — through  this 
one  act  of  a  threatening  struggle,  we  have  safely 
passed.  Tliis  one  battle — it  may  be  in  a  "  thirty 
years'  war" — has  been  won.  And  when  I  speak 
thus,  I  mean,  won,  not  for  this  or  that  political  party, 
— but  won  for  our  country ;  our  whole  country.  And 
we  would  gladly  take  it  as  an  omen  and  earnest  of 
what  is  yet  in  store  for  us,  in  God's  providence,  in 
the  future. 

A  hitter  struggle. — Ibe  bitterest  political  struggle 


POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT.  9 

we  have  ever  known.  llTo  little  of  this  bitterness 
has  arisen,  from  the  mingling  of  religious  elements 
with  the  political  issues  involved.  Religious  ele- 
ments— using  that  term  religious  in  its  widest  sense 
— when  mingling  with  other  elements  in  civil  and 
political  strife,  as  all  history  testifies,  have  ever 
given  rise  to  the  deadliest  conflicts  earth  has  wit- 
nessed. Saul  of  Tarsus,  takes  the  lead  in  the  first 
Christian  persecution ;  and  whilst  other  Scribes 
remain,  reviling  the  name  of  Jesus,  in  Jerusalem,  he 
follows  his  victims  unto  strange  cities. — And  he 
does  so,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  because,  with  con- 
science misinformed,  "  he  verily  thinks  that  he  ought 
to  do  many  things  against  the  name  of  Jesus."  The 
Inquisition,  is  the  bloodiest  and  most  merciless  of 
human  tribunals,  because,  in  its  court,  a  fanatic 
priest  sits  "  at  the  top  of  judgment." 

So,  in  our  own  land,  and  during  the  summer  just 
past,  we  have  had  one  of  the  bitterest  political  strug- 
gles ever  known,  in  large  part,  because  the  religious 
feelings  of  men  have  been  evoked, — men  have  been 
made  to  feel  that  in  promoting  the  interest  of  a  party, 
they  were,  verily,  doing  God's  service: — because, 
not  the  Statesman  or  the  Politician  alone,  but  the 
Preacher  also,  has  become  an  active  partisan, — in 
some  instances,  "  mounting  the  stump," — in  others, 
doing  what  is  far  worse,  prostituting  the  pulpit  and 

1* 


10  POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT. 

profaning  the  Sabbath,  by  preaching  politics  instead 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

That  all  this  is  wrong,  radically  wrong,  will  be,  I 
believe,  the  conclusion  of  every  ingenuous  Christian 
man,  under  the  guidance  of  his  religious  instincts 
alone ;  even  though  he  may  not  be  able  to  give  a 
reason  distinctly  for  this  his  conclusion.  As  already 
intimated,  that  which  we  have  witnessed,  may  be  but 
one  act  in  a  protracted  strife,  stretching  far  into  the 
future.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  us  then,  as  Chris- 
tian men,  to  examine  the  ground  on  which  we  stand, 
in  repudiating  and  condemning  all  interference  of  the 
Church  and  the  Preacher  in  political  strife  ;  not  only, 
that  we  may  be  able  to  give  a  reason  for  our  faith  to 
him  that  asketh  it ;  but  also,  that  in  time  to  come, 
we  may  "  wash  our  hands  in  innocency ;  and  so  com- 
pass the  altars  of  our  God." 

The  nature  of  the  Church,  and  the  promise  of 
THE  Preacher,  as  set  forth  in  the  Word  of  God,  is 
the  subject  to  which  I  ask  your  attention  to-day. 

The  church  of  God  is  not — as  seems  to  be  taken  for 
granted  by  many — an  institution  intended  to  do  all 
the  good  which  needs  to  be  done  in  the  world,  and 
to  wage  war  upon  every  form  of  human  ill.  There 
are  other  institutions,  intended  to  do  good  and  alle- 
viate the  ills  of  life,  to  enable  men  to  "  live  in  all 


-/ 


POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT.  11 

godliness  and  honesty,"  that  are  as  truly  institutions 
of  God  as  the  Church  itself.  For  each  of  these,  sev- 
erally, God,  their  common  author,  has  assigned  its 
proper  sphere  of  operation,  and  beyond  its  limits,  no 
one  of  them  may  safely  or  rightfully  go. 

Civil  government  is  one  of  these  institutions. 
"  The  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God.  Whoso- 
"ever  therefore  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the 
"  ordinance  of  Ood. — He  (i.  e.  the  civil  ruler)  is  the 
'"''minister  of  Ood  to  thee  for  good." — (Kom.  xiii. 
"  1-4)  "  I  exhort  therefore,  that  first  of  all,  suppli- 
"  cations,  prayers,  intercessions  and  giving  of  thanks 
"  be  made  for  all  men  ;  For  kings  and  for  all  that  are 
"  in  authority  ;  that  we  may  lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable 
"  life,  in  all  godliness  and  honesty.  For  this  is  good 
"  and  accejptdble  in  the  sight  of  God  our  Samiourr 
—(1  Tim.  ii.  1-4.) 

According  to  the  plain  representation  of  Scripture, 
the  State  is  as  truly  an  institution  of  God  as  the 
Church : — And  a  great  deal  of  the  good  which  needs 
to  be  done  in  the  world,  is,  by  God's  appointment,  to 
be  done  through  its  agency ;  and  a  great  many  of 
the  ills  of  life  are  to  be  alleviated  in  the  same  way. 
Is  "  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  "  to  be  secured  for  man, 
it  is  the  immediate  business  of  the  State  to  secure  it. 
Is  the  evil-doer  to  be  terrified,  the  civil  ruler  "bear- 
eth.  not  the  sword  in  vain."     In  his   own  proper 


12  POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT- 

sphere,  the  civil  ruler  is  as  truly  "the  minister  of 
God  to  thee  for  good,"  as  is  the  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel. In  securing  to  the  Christian  man,  "  a  life  in  all 
godliness  and  honesty,"  the  civil  ruler  has  a  part 
assigned  him  of  God,  as  truly  as  has  the  minister  of 
the  Church ; — And  he  who  would  "  keep  a  conscience 
void  of  oflence  toward  God  and  toward  man" — 
"  would  wash  his  hands  in  innocency,  and  so  compass 
God's  altar,"  is  bound  to  regard  these  appointments 
of  God.  The  Church  may  no  more  rightfully  intrude 
itself  into  the  province  of  the  State,  than  the  State 
may  itself  into  the  province  of  the  Church.  The 
forum  and  the  court,  and  all  that  properly  appertain  to 
them,  have  been  given  of  God  to  the  civil  ruler, — the 
Church  and  the  pulpit,  to  the  minister  of  the  Gospel. 

The  fact,  if  fact  it  be,  that  the  State  may  not  be 
accomj)lishing  all  the  good  it  ought, — that  civil  or 
political  evils  are  suffered  under  its  administration, — 
that  it  needs  reforming,  does  not  authorize  the 
Church  to  step  in  and  supply  these  deficiencies,  or 
reform  these  abuses,  any  more  than  a  similar  state 
of  things  in  the  Church,  would  authorize  the  State  to 
interfere.  All  human  institutions — human,  in  that 
they  are  administered  by  men,  though  ordained  of 
God — are  imperfect  in  their  operation: — and  this, 
not  because  the  ordinance  of  God  is  imperfect;  but, 
because  sin  has  introduced  disorder  into  the  working 


POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT.  13 

of  all  earthly  things ;  has  put  man's  nature  out  of 
joint.  The  harp  of  David  gives  forth  many  a  wailing 
note,  because  sin,  with  rough  hand,  has  swept  the 
strings.  The  rose  of  Sharon,  will  open  with  blasted 
petals,  if  the  hot  winds  of  the  desert  breathe  upon  it  in 
the  bud.  The  Church,  the  State,  the  Family,  we  dis- 
cover evils  in  the  practical  working  of  them  all.  And 
such,  we  believe,  will  be  the  case,  so  long  as  man,  but 
partially  sanctified  at  best,  is  "  God's  minister "  in 
their  administration. 

"We  freely  grant,  and  sincerely  rejoice  in  the 
truth,  that  the  healthful  operations  of  the  Church,  in 
its  own  appropriate  sphere,  re-act  upon  all  the  inter- 
ests of  man,  and  contribute  to  the  progress  and  pros- 
perity of  society.  But  we  are  far  from  admitting, 
either,  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  God,  that  under  this 
present  dispensation  of  religion,  all  evil  shall  be  ban- 
ished from  this  sublunary  state,  and  earth  be  convert- 
ed into  a  paradise;  or,  that  the  proper  end  of  the 
Church  is  the  direct  promotion  of  universal  good." 
— {Synod  of  South  Carolina,  1848.) 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  so  far  as  his  conduct  was 
ministerial,  appeared  on  earth,  as  a  minister  of  the 
Church.  As  the  universal  sovereign  of  all,  he  might, 
had  he  seen  fit  so  to  do,  have  rightfully  exercised 
civil  rule,  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  authority, — have 
appeared  as  a  temporal  king,  as  well  as  a  spiritual 

ruler.    But  such  was  not  his  choice  :  such  was  not  the 

#  ' 


14  POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT. 

purpose  of  his  life  among  men.  Hence,  when  on  a 
certain  occasion,  he  perceived  that  the  multitude 
"  would  come,  and  take  him  hj  force  to  make  him  a 
"  king,  he  departed  again  into  a  mountain  himself 
"  alone." — (John.  vi.  15.)  Hence  also,  when  asked  of 
Pilate — "  Art  thou  the  King  of  the  Jews  ? — Jesus 
"  answered  him,  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world  :  if 
"  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then  would  my 
"  servants  fight,  that  I  should  not  be  delivered  to  the 
"  Jews  :  but  now,  is  my  kingdom  not  from  hence." — 
(John,  xviii.  33,  36.)  As  a  minister  of  the  Church 
the  example  of  Christ  is  a  perfect  example,  and  of 
binding  authority  upon  the  minister  of  the  Church  in 
every  age. 

l^otice  now — and  I  shall  quote  but  two,  from  among 
the  instances  which  the  gospel  record  presents — how 
carefully  Christ  observed  the  distinction  between 
Church  and  State, — and  as  a  minister  of  the  Church, 
avoided  all  interference  with  the  civil  government, 
within  its  own  proper  sphere. 

"  And  they  (the  chief  priests  and  scribes)  sent  forth 
"  spies,  which  should  feign  themselves  just  men,  that 
"  they  might  take  hold  of  his  words,  that  so  they 
"  might  deliver  him  unto  the  power  and  authority 
"  of  the  governor.  And  they  asked  him,  saying, 
"  master,  we  know  that  thou  sayest  and  teachest  right- 
"ly,  neither  acceptest  thou  the  person  of  any,  but 
"  teachest  the  way  of  God  truly  :  Is  it  lawful  for  ug 


POLmCS   AND   THE   PULPIT.  15 

"  to  give  tribute  unto  Caesar  or  no  ?  But  he  perceived 
"their  craftiness,  and  said  unto  them,  Why  tempt 
"  ye  me  ?  Shew  me  a  penny.  Whose  image 
"and  superscription  hath  it?  They  answered  and 
"said,  Caesar's.  And  he  said  unto  them,  Eender 
"  therefore  unto  Caesar  the  things  which  be  Caesar's, 
"  and  unto  God  the  things  which  be  God's." — (Luke 
XX.  20-25). 

To  say,  that  our  Lord,  in  this  instance,  avoided  a 
direct  decision  of  the  question  proposed,  through 
fear  of  the  Roman  governor,  is  to  do  him  greater 
injustice  than  did  these  Jews  who  sought  to  entangle  - 
him  in  his  speech.  He  who  hurled  at  the  hypo- 
critical scribes  and  pharisees — rulers  in  the  Church 
— his  terrible  anathemas — "  Woe  unto  you,  scribes 
and  pharisees,  hypocrites  !  for  ye  devour  widows' 
houses,  and  for  a  pretence  make  long  prayers: 
therefore  ye  shall  receive  the  greater  damnation. 
— ^For  ye  are  like  unto  whited  sepulchres,  which 
indeed  appear  beautiful  outward,  but  are  within  full 
of  dead  men's  bones,  and  of  all  uncleanness. — ^Ye 
serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  how  can  ye  escape 
the  damnation  of  hell?" — He  who,  at  Jerusalem, 
when  "  he  found  in  the  temple,  those  that  sold  oxen, 
and  sheep,  and  doves,  and  the  changers  of  money 
sitting;  made  a  scourge  of  small  cords,  and  drove 
them  all  out  of  the  temple,  and  the  sheep  and  the 


,  c-^ 


16  POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT. 

oxen;  and  ponred  out  the  changers'  money,  and 
overthrew  the  tables ;  and  said  unto  them  that  sold 
doves,  Take  these  things  hence ;  make  not  my 
Father's  house  a  house  of  merchandise," — if  we  do 
him  common  justice,  judging  of  him  as  we  would  of 
any  man,  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  avoided  a 
decision  of  this  question,  through  any  fear  of  the 
consequences.  The  course  he  pursued,  was  chosen 
from  higher  motives  than  such  as  these. 

The  Jews,  in  our  Lord's  day,  were  a  conquered 
people.  The  government  under  which  they  lived 
was  in  many  respects  an  oppressive  one.  Their 
rulers  were  often  tyrannical,  wicked  men.  In  these 
circumstances,  they  come  to  Jesus  with  the  question 
— "  Is  it  lawful  for  us  to  give  tribute  unto  Caesar,  or 
no  ?"  By  "  lawful,"  they  did  not  mean — in  accord- 
ance with  the  existing  law  of  the  land : — but,  is  it 
right  in  itself?  Ought  we  to  submit  to  such  a  govern- 
ment ?  Instead  of  directly  answering  this  question, 
Christ  calls  their  attention  to  the  fact,  that  in  using 
money  bearing  the  image  and  superscription  of 
Caesar,  they  admitted  that  Caesar  was  the  supreme 
civil  ruler,  to  whom  God  in  his  providence  has  sub- 
jected them.  And  then,  as  a  minister  of  the  Church, 
carefully  avoiding  all  interference  with  the  State, 
and  on  the  principle  that  "  the  powers  that  be  are 
ordained  of  God,"  he  says — "  Kender  therefore  unto 


POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT.  17 

Caesar  the  things  which  be  Caesar's  " — ^he  refuses  to 
take  any  notice  of  the  question  of  civil  right  which 
had  been  proposed  to  him — and  adds — "and  unto 
God,  the  things  which  be  God's."  This  our  Lord 
does,  not  upon  the  principles  of  "  passive  obedience," 
as  that  doctrine  has  been  taught  in  by-gone  days ; 
but  as  observing  carefully  the  distinction  which  God 
has  established  between  the  Church  and  the  State. 

On  another  occasion — "  One  of  the  company  said 
"  unto  him,  Master,  speak  to  my  brother,  that  he 
"  divide  the  inheritance  with  me.  And  he  said 
"  unto  him — Man,  who  made  me  a  judge  or  divider 
"  over  you. "—(Luke  xii.  13,  14.) 

Here  was  a  case  of  alleged  injustice,  of  wrong 
done ;  and  probably  a  very  clear  case,  or  the  appeal 
would  not  have  been  made  to  Jesus  in  the  manner 
it  was.  A  case  too,  in  which  the  civil  magistrate  had 
failed — at  least,  up  to  the  time  it  was  brought  to 
Jesus — to  administer  justice.  How  easy  would  it 
have  been  for  our  Lord,  knowing  all  things,  as  he 
did,  to  have  rendered  an  infallible  decision  in  the 
case.  How  easy  would  it  have  been  for  him,  armed 
with  the  power  of  a  God,  to  have  executed  his  right- 
eous decree.  Does  he  do  this  ?  Not  at  all.  He 
who  never  sent  away  the  ignorant — ignorant  of  God's 
truth — without  instruction ;  the  sick,  the  maimed, 
the  blind,  without  healing ;    the   possessed  of  the 


18  POLITICS   AKD   THE   PULPIT. 

devil,  without  deliverance, — refuses  to  entertain  this 
case  even  for  a  moment.  His  prompt  reply  is — 
"Man,  who  made  me  a  judge  or  divider  over  you?" 
Your  case  is  one  which  falls  within  the  province  of 
the  State. — To  the  civil  court  must  you  carry  your 
cause.     "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." 

The  conduct  of  Christ's  inspired  Apostles,  was 
always  in  conformity  with  the  example  he  set  them, 
in  this  matter.  Tliey  lived,  and  preached,  and 
labored ;  they  planted  the  church  and  nurtured  it, 
in  countries,  where  the  civil  government  was  oppres- 
sive, and  greatly  needed  reforming, — when  the  State 
failed  in  the  accomplishment  of  much  of  the  good 
which  God  designed  the  State  to  do, — when  many  of 
the  ills  of  life,  which  civil  government  is  intended  to 
correct,  were  suffered  to  prevail  unchecked, — where 
person  and  property  were  insecure, — where  the 
administration  of  the  jfinances  was  a  very  thrift- 
less and  often  an  iniquitous  one, — where  the  judges 
took  bribes,  and  the  rulers  oppressed  the  people ; 
and  the  Apostles  suffered,  in  their  own  persons,  in  all 
these  various  ways.  Yet  never  do  we  find  these 
heaven-guided  ministers  of  the  Church,  any  more 
than  Christ  himself,  intermeddling  with  the  affairs  of 
State.  ISTever  do  we  see  them  taking  the  lead  in 
political  agitation.  Never  did  they,  on  the  Sabbath, 
lay  aside  the  Gospel,  that  they  might  preach  civil,  or 


POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT.  1& 

even  legal  reform.  True  to  their  character  of 
"  ambassadors  for  Christ,"  they  know  nothing  among 
those  to  whom  they  go  "  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him 
crucified." — "They  teach  men  publicly  and  from 
house  to  house,  testifying  both  to  the  Jews  and  also 
to  the  Greeks,  repentance  toward  God,  and  faith 
toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." — (1  Cor.  ii.  2 ;  Acts 
XX.  20,  21.)  Having  received  a  specific  commission 
from  the  Lord  Jesus,  their  Lord  and  ours, — "  Go  ye 
"  therefore  and  disciple  all  nations, — teaching  them 
"  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
"  2/ot*,"  (Matt,  xxviii.)  they  abide  by  their  commis- 
sion, to  the  letter ;  never  transgressing  it,  by  adding 
anything  to,  or  taking  anything  from  what  Christ 
hath  commanded. 

In  the  life  of  the  inspired  Apostles,  the  Church 
appears,  if  possible,  more  clearly  than  in  the  general 
declarations  of  God's  word,  a  peculiar  institution, — 
and  her  ministers,  a  peculiar  order  of  men. 

As  thus  set  forth,  the  Church  appears  as  "  a  society, 
voluntary,  in  the  sense  that  all  its  members  become 
so,  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly,  but  not  in  the 
sense  that  its  doctrines,  discipline,  and  order,  are  the 
creatures  of  human  will,  deriving  their  authority 
and  obligation  from  the  consent  of  the  members. 
On  the  contrary ;  it  has  a  fixed  and  unalterable  con- 
stitution ;  and  that  constitution  is  the  word  of  God. 


20  POLITICS    AND   THE    PULPIT. 

The  Church  is  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
He  is  enthroned  in  it  as  sovereign.  It  can  hear  no 
voice  but  His,  obey  no  command  but  His,  pursue  no 
end  but  His,  Its  officers  are  His  servants,  bound  to 
execute  only  His  will.  Its  doctrines  are  His  teach- 
ings, which  He,  as  a  prophet,  has  given  from  God ; 
its  discipline.  His  law,  which  He  as  a  king  has 
ordained.  The  power  of  the  Church,  accordingly,  is 
only  ministerial  and  declarative.  The  Bible,  and  the 
Bible  alone,  is  her  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  She 
can  announce  what  it  teaches ;  enjoin  what  it  com- 
mands ;  prohibit  what  it  condemns ;  and  enforce  her 
testimonies  by  spiritual  sanctions.  Beyond  the 
Bible,  she  can  never  go ;  and  apart  from  the  Bible, 
she  can  never  speak.  '  To  the  law  and  to  the  testi- 
mony,' and  to  them  alone,  she  must  always  appeal ; 
and  when  they  are  silent,  it  is  her  duty  to  put  her 
hand  upon  her  lips." — {Synod  of  South  Carolina^ 
1848.) 

Let  us  apply  these  principles, — Or,  rather,  Let  us 
see  how  Christ  and  his  Apostles  applied  them — in  the 
matter  which  has  involved  the  Church  so  largely,  in 
the  bitter  political  contest  we  have  been  called  upon 
to  witness  during  the  summer  just  passed.  It  has 
been  through  the  agency  of  the  "  slavery  question," 
the  preacher,  in  some  instances,  has  quitted  the 
pulpit   and  "mounted   the  stump;"    in  others,  has 


POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT.  21 

desecrated  the  pulpit  and  profaned  the  Sabbath,  by 
preaching  politics  instead  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ — 
and  in  one  instance,  within  God's  house,  a  contribu- 
tion has  been  taken  up  in  "  Sharp's  rifles  " — a  Reve- 
rend Marker  standing  up  to  keep  the  tally. 

The  institution  of  slavery  is  not  something  new 
and  peculiar  to  our  day.  We  know  not  just  when  it 
began  to  exist  among  men.  As  far  back  as  the  days 
of  Abraham,  when  "  the  Lord  had  blessed  Abraham 
in  all  things,"  we  have  an  inventory  of  his  posses- 
sions, given  by  "  the  eldest  servant  in  his  house,"  in 
the  words — "  And  the  Lord  hath  blessed  my  master 
"  greatly,  and  he  is  become  great ;  and  he  hath 
"  given  him  flocks  and  herds,  and  silver  and  gold, 
"and  men-servants  and  maid-servants,  and  camels 
"  and  asses." — (Gen.  xxiv.  35.)  And  we  know  that 
when  God  first  gave  his  visible  Church  a  distinct 
and  formal  existence  among  men,  He  recognized 
the  relation  as  existing  in  Abraham's  family,  and 
enforced  the  discharge  of  the  duties  growing  out  of 
it,  by  church  sanctions.  "  And  he  that  is  eight 
"  days  old  shall  be  circumcised  among  you,  every 
"  man-child  in  your  generations,  he  that  is  born  in 
"  thy  house,  or  he  that  is  l)ought  with  money  of  any 
"  stranger,  which  is  not  of  thy  seed.  He  tliat  is  bom 
"  in  thy  house,  and  he  that  is  hought  with  thy  money, 
"  must  needs  be  circumcised ;  and  my  covenant  shall 


22  POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT. 

"  be  in  your  flesh  for  an  everlasting  covenant." — 
(Gen.  xvii.  12,  13.)   And  we  know  farther,  that  when 
on  the  top  of  Sinai,  God,  with  his  own  finger,  wrote 
the  moral  law  upon   tables   of    stone,   instead  of 
writing  a  prohibition  of  slavery,  as  he  did  of  things 
einful  in  themselves,  he  treats  the  relation  of  master 
and  servant  as  a  lawful  relation,  and  in  one  particu- 
lar, regulates  it  accordingly.      "  Remember  the  Sab- 
"bath  day  to  keep  it  holy.      Six   days  shalt  thou 
"  labor,  and  do  all  thy  work.     But  the  seventh  day 
"  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God ;  in  it,  thou 
"  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy 
"  daughter,   nor  thy   man-servant^    nor   thy  maid- 
^^  servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  the   stranger   that  is 
"within  thy  gates."— (Ex.  xx.  8-10.) 
•    In  the   days  of   Christ  and  his  Apostles,  slavery 
existed,  not  in  Judea   only,  but   in  every  country 
in  which  they  either  preached  the  Gospel  or  founded 
a  Christian  Church.     In  Judea,  under  the  operation 
of  Moses'  law,  many  of  the  incidental  evils  of  slavery 
were   carefully  provided  against,  and  the  condition 
of   the   slaves  was  far    better    than    among  other 
nations.    Yet  even   among   the  Jews,  almost  every 
one  of  the  incidental  evils  of  slavery  existed,  on  the 
ground   of    which    so   much   objection   is   made   to 
slavery,   at   the    present   day,   as    it   exists  in   our 
southern  States.     Amongst  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 


POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT.  23 

even  the  most  prejudiced  judges  cannot  but  admit 
that  the  condition  of  the  slave  was  greatly  worse, 
than  it  now  is,  anywhere  in  the  civilized  world/ 

*  Among  the  Jews. — "Both  the  food  and  the  clothing  of  those, 
who,  for  any  cause,  whatever  it  might  be,  had  lost  their  freedom, 
were  of  the  poorest  description.  All  their  earnings  went  to  their 
masters.  They  commonly  had  the  consent  of  their  masters  to  marry, 
or  rather  to  connect  themselves  with  a  woman,  in  the  way  which  is 
denominated  by  a  Latin  law-term  contuhernium.  ("  The  contuher- 
nium  was  the  matrimony  of  slaves,  a  permitted  cohabitation;  not 
partaking  of  lawful  marriage,  which  they  could  not  contract." — 
Cooper's  Justinian,  p.  420.)  The  children  that  proceeded  from  this 
sort  of  marriage,  were  the  property,  not  of  the  parents,  but  of  their 
owners.  Slaves  were  expected  to  perform  any  labor  which  their 
master  deemed  it  expedient  to  require  of  them.  The  maid-servants 
were  generally  employed  in  domestic  concerns,  though  not  unfre- 
quently,  they  were  compelled  to  engage  in  those  duties,  which,  from 
their  nature,  were  more  befitting  the  other  sex." — {Jahn's  Biblical 
Archeology.     Andover  Ed.  1832,  pp.  180,  181.) 

Among  the  Romans. — "  Slaves  were  held  ^ro  nullis:  pro  mortuis  : 
pro  quadrupedibus :  nay,  were  in  a  much  worse  state  than  any  cattle 
whatsoever.  They  had  no  head  in  the  state,  no  name,  title,  or 
register :  they  were  not  capable  of  being  injured :  nor  could  they 
take  by  purchase  or  descent :  they  had  no  heirs,  and  therefore  could 
make  no  will :  exclusive  of  what  was  called  iheiv  peciiliutn,  whatever 
they  acquired  was  their  master's :  they  could  not  plead  nor  be 
pleaded  for,  but  were  excluded  from  all  civil  concerns  whatever ; 
they  could  not  claim  the  indulgence  of  absence  reipublicce  causa : 
they  were  not  entitled  to  the  rights  and  considerations  of  matrimony, 
and  therefore  had  no  relief  in  case  of  adultery  :  nor  were  they  proper 
objects  of  cognation  or  affinity,  but  of  quasi-cognatiou  only :  they 


24  POLITICS    AND    THE    PULPIT. 

With  slavery,  in  one  or  other  of  these  forms,  the 
Apostles  met  at  every  turn.  How  do  they  deal  with 
it  ?  Do  they  denounce  slave-holding  as  a  8in,  and 
require  the  master  to  free  his  slave,  before  they 
admit  him  to  the  Church,  as  a  worthy  member  ? — 
Never — There  is  not  the  most  distant  allusion  to  sla- 
very, in  all  the  preaching  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles, 
as  recorded  in  the  Gospels  and  the  Book  of  Acts. 
There  is  not  one  word  that  looks  to  the  freeino'  of  the 
slave,  on  the  part  of  the  master,  as  a  condition  of 
that  master's  admission  to  the  Church,  in  the  whole 
l^Qw  Testament. 

could  be  sold,  transferred  or  pawned,  as  goods  or  personal  estate ; 
for  goods  they  were,  and  as  such  they  were  esteemed :  they  might 
be  tortured  for  evidence :  punished  at  the  discretion  of  their  lord, 
or  even  put  to  death  by  his  authority  :  together  with  many  other 
civil  incapacities  which  I  have  not  room  to  enumerate." — {Taylor's 
Elem.  of  Civil  Law,  as  quoted  in  the  Notes  to  Cooper's  Justinian, 
p.  411.)  In  addition  to  this — "  As  the  seller  was  bound  to  promise 
for  the  soundness  of  his  slaves,  and  not  to  conceal  their  faults,  they 
were  commonly  exposed  to  sale  naked :  and  they  carried  a  scroll 
hanging  at  their  necks,  on  which  their  good  and  bad  qualities  were 
specified. — The  lash  was  the  common  punishment ;  but  for  certain 
crimes  they  used  to  be  burned  in  the  forehead,  and  sometimes  were 
forced  to  carry  a  piece  of  wood  around  their  necks,  wherever  they 
■vyent. — When  slaves  were  beaten,  they  used  to  be  suspended  with  a 
weight  tied  to  their  feet,  and  when  punished  capitally,  were  com- 
monly crucified." — {Adam^a  Roman  Antiquities.  New  York  Ed, 
1819.  pp.  49,  61.) 


POLITICS    AND   THE    PULPIT.  ^S 

But  what  do  they? — when  God  has  blessed  their 
preaching  of  his  Gospel,  and  men  are  hopefully 
converted,  they  receive  them,  master  and  servant, 
into  the  same  Church,  baptizing  them  with  the  same 
water, — -just  as  we  are  accustomed  to  do,  at  the 
South,  at  the  present  day.  And  when  the  Church 
is  gathered  at  the  Lord's  table,  masters  and  servants, 
they  eat  of  the  same  bread  and  drink  of  the  same 
cup, — just  as  you  and  I,  Christian  hearer,  have  done, 
many  a  time,  feeling  that  "  in  Christ  Jesus,  there  is 
neither  bond  nor  free." 

The  scriptural  proof  of  these  statements  is  abun- 
dant— "Let  as  many  servants'  as  are  under  the  yoke, 
"  count  their  own  masters  worth v  of  all  honor,  that 
"the  name  of  God  and  his  doctrine  be  not  blas- 
"  phemed.  And  they  that  have  helievvng  masters^ 
"  let  them  not  despise  them  because  they  are  hreth- 
"  ren  /  but  rather  do  them  service,  because  they  are 
'■^faithfuV  {pisfoi,  believers,)  and  '■'-'beloved,  par- 
"  takers  of  the  benefit.  These  things  teach  and 
"  exhort.     If  any  man  teach  otherwise,  and  consent 

*  The  Greek  word  here  translated  servant — and  the  same  is  true  of 
most  other  instances  in  which  that  word  occurs  in  our  English  New 
Testament — is  doulos.  Of  this  word  Robinson  in  his  N.  T.  Lexicon 
gives  this  definition — "In  a  family,  the  doulos  was  one  bound  to 
serve,  a  slave,  and  was  the  property  of  his  master,  '  a  living  posses- 
sion,' as  Aristotle  calls  him ;  and  never  a  hired  servant,  the  latter 
being  called  misthios  or  misthotos." 

2 


26  POLITICS    AND   THE   PtJLPIT. 

"not  to  wholesome  words,  even  the  words  of  oar 
"Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the  doctrine  which  is 
"  according  to  godliness,  he  is  proud." — (1  Tim.  vi. 
1-3.)'  Here  Paul  not  only  directs  the  course  to  be 
pursued, — but  also,  distinctly  and  explicitly  affirms, 
that  such  are  "the  wholesome  words  of  our  Lord 
'  ■  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  doctrine  which  is  according  to 
•  "  godliness."  For  further  proof,  see  Eph.  vi.  5-9  ;  Col. 
iii.  22,  25  ;  iv.  1 ;  and  the  Epistle  to  Philemon. 

Li  the  Apostolic  Epistle,  we  have,  in  several  in- 
stances, extended  catalogues  of  the  sins  of  heathen- 
dom given  us,  (see  Rom.  i.  29-31,  and  1  Cor.  vi. 

^  McKniglit's  paraphrase  of  vrs.  3,  4,  is, — and  I  quote  McKnight, 
in  part,  because  of  his  acknowledged  ability  as  a  critical  expositor 
of  Scripture  ;  but  mainly,  because,  himself  a  Scotchman,  and  writing 
before  any  angry  controversy  on  the  subject  of  slavery  had  arisen 
in  the  Church,  (his  work  on  the  Epistles  was  published  in  1795,)  he 
cannot  be  suspected  of  pro-slavery  prejudices — "  And  those  Christian 
slaves  who  have  believing  masters,  let  them  not  despise  them,  fancy- 
ing that  they  are  their  equals,  because  they  are  their  brethren  in 
Christ ;  for  though  all  Christians  are  equal  as  to  I'ehgious  privileges, 
slaves  are  inferior  to  their  masters  in  station.  Wherefore  let  them 
serve  their  masters  the  more  dihgently,  because  they  who  enjoy  the 
benefit  of  their  services,  are  believers  and  beloved  of  God.  These 
things  teach,  and  exhort  the  brethren  to  practise  them.  If  any  teach 
differently,  by  affirming  that,  under  the  Gospel,  slaves  are  not  bound 
to  serve  their  masters,  but  ought  to  be  made  free,  and  do  not  consent 
to  the  wholesome  commandments  which  are  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ's, 
and  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  which  in  all  points  is  conformable 
to  true  morality,  he  is "     {McKnight  on  the  Epistles.) 


POLITICS    A.JSID    THE    PULPIT.  27 

9,  10,)  and  also  catalogues  of  disciplinable  offences, 
(see  1  Cor.  v.  11,  and  1  Tim.  i.  9,  10),  and  never,  in 
one  single  instance,  extended  as  the  catalogue  may 
be,  does  slaveholding  appear  among  the  sins  which 
they  condemn. 

The  only  statement  which  can  be  tortured  into 
anything  of  the  kind,  is  the  specification  of  "men- 
stealers"  in  1  Tim.  i.  10.  A  moment's  reflection 
must  satisfy  every  ingenuous  person,  that  slave-hold- 
ing, as  practised  among  us  now,  is  as  different  from 
"  men-stealing,"  as  is  land-holding,  under  the  peace- 
able tenure  of  law,  from  the  land-getting  by  fraud 
and  violence,  often  practised  in  the  early  settlement 
of  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  New  England 
included.'  - 

The  nearest  that  any  statement  in  the  ISTew  Testa- 
ment comes  to  modern  abolition  doctrine,  is — "Let 
"  every  man  abide  in  the  same  calling  wherein  he  was 
"  called.  Art  thou  called  being  a  servant  {doulos), 
"  care  not  for  it ;  hut  if  thou  may  est  he  free  use  it 
"  rather.  For  he  that  is  called  in  the  Lord,  being  a 
"  servant,    is    the     Lord's    freeman." — (1    Cor.   vii. 

*  On  1  Tim.  i.  10,  McKnight  has  this  note.  "  They  who  make  war 
for  the  inhuman  purpose  of  selling  the  vanquished  as  slaves,  as  is  the 
practice  of  the  African  princes,  are  really  men-stealers.  And  they, 
who,  like  the  African  traders,  encourage  that  unchristian  traflBc,  by 
purchasing  the  slaves  which  they  know  to  be  unjustly  acquired." 


28  ,  POLITICS    AND   THE    PULPIT. 

20-22.')  The  doctrine  of  this  text  is  held  every- 
where, by  Christian  men  at  the  South,  and  on  all 
proper  occasions  preached  from  our  pulpits.  Would 
that  it  were  so  in  all  parts  of  the  country ! 

This  conduct  of  Christ,  and  the  Apostles,  invested 
by  him  with  authority,  and  endued  with  wisdom  to 
complete  the  organization  of  the  Church,  is  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  idea  that  slave-holding  is  a  sin,  and 
the  relation  of  a  master,  one  which  a  Christian  man 
may  not  hold  with  a  good  conscience  before  God. 
Any  other  view  than  that  we  take,  involves  the  idea, 
that  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  in  their  uniform  avoid- 
ance of  this  subject,  were  guilty  of  an  unholy  truck- 
ling to  the  prejudices  of  men,  of  a  Jesuitical  accom- 
modation of  the  Church  of  God  to  the  passions  and 
interests  of  wicked  men.  The  State,  by  passing  a 
law,  prohibiting  slave-holding,  may  make  it  a  civil 
offence.  The  political  economist  may  prove  it  to  be 
a  political  evil.     But  a  sin  no  man,  nor  body  of  men, 

*  McKnight  paraphrases  this  passage, — "  Since  the  Gospel  makes 
no  alteration  in  men's  political  state,  let  every  Christian  remain  in 
the  same  political  state  in  which  he  was  called.  Agreeably  to  this 
rule,  Wast  thou  called,  being  a  bondman  ?  Be  not  thou  soHcitous  to 
be  made  free,  fancying  that  a  bondman  is  less  the  object  of  God's 
favor  than  a  freeman.  Yet,  if  thou  canst  even  be  made  free  by  any 
lawful  method,  rather  obtain  thy  freedom.  But  if  disappointed, 
grieve  not :  For  a  bondman  who  is  called  by  the  Lord,  possesses  the 
greatest  of  all  dignities ;  he  is  the  Lord's  free-man." 


POLITICS    AND    THE    PULPIT.  29 

can  ever  make  it,  so  long  as  God's  Word  is  the  ulti- 
mate authority  in  questions  of  right  and  wrong. 

I  may  be  asked — Does  slavery  so  alter  the  relations 
between  a  man  and  his  fellow-man,  that  the  one, 
because  he  is  a  master,  may,  without  sin,  oppress, 
or  cruelly  lash,  or  even  take  the  life  of  the  other, 
because  that  other  is  a  slave  ?  Certainly  not.  The 
fact  that  civil  government  is  an  ordinance  of  God, 
does  not  make  it  right  for  the  civil  Kuler,  having 
the  power,  to  harass  the  subject,  or  to  take  bribes 
in  the  administration  of  the  law.  These  are  abuses, 
incidental  evils,  and  not  part  and  parcel  of  the  insti- 
tution itself,  either  in  the  one  case  or  the  other: — 
And  in  both  alike,  in  so  far  as  they  are  violations  of 
the  moral  law,  they  are  sins  in  God's  account,  and  in 
the  account  of  his  Church: — and  so  the  Apostles 
always  treated  them. 

'No  book  defines  more  clearly,  than  the  Bible,  the 
relative  duties  of  master  and  servant ;  or  enforces  the 
faithful  discharge  of  those  duties  by  more  solemn 
sanctions — "  Servants,  obey  in  all  things  your  masters 
"according  to  the  flesh:  not  with  eye-service,  as 
"  men-pleasers ;  but  in  singleness  of  heart,  fearing 
"  God :  And  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily,  as  to 
"the  Lord,  and  not  unto  men,  knowing  that  of  the 
"  Lord  ye  shall  receive  the  reward  of  the  inheritance  ; 
"  for  ye  serve  the  Lord  Christ.     But  he  that  doeth 


30  POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT,   v 

"  wrong,  shall  receive  for  the  wrong  which  he  had 
"  done :  and  there  is  no  respect  of  persons.  Masters, 
"give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and 
"  equal ;  knowing  that  ye  also  have  a  Master  in 
"  Heaven."— (Col.  iii.  22-25  ;  iv.  1.) 

"  Servants,  be  obedient  to  them  that  are  your  mas- 
"ters  according  to  the  flesh,  with  fear  and  trembling, 
"  in  singleness  of  your  heart,  as  unto  Christ ;  Not 
"  with  eye-service,  as  men-j)leasers ;  but  as  the  ser- 
"vants  of  Christ,  doing  the  will  of  God  from  the 
"  heart ;  with  good  will  doing  service,  as  to  the  Lord 
"  and  not  to  men  :  Knowing  that  whatsoever  good 
"  thing  any  man  doeth,  the  same  shall  he  receive  of  the 
"  Lord,  whether  he  be  bond  or  free.  And,  ye  mas- 
"  ters,  do  the  same  things  unto  them,  forbearing 
"  threatening  :  knowing  that  your  Master  also  is  in 
"  Heaven,  neither  is  there  respect  of  persons  with 
"him."— (Eph.  vi.  5-9.) 

According  to  God's  word,  the  Christian  Minister 
is  bound  to  teach  the  relative  duties  of  masters  and 
servants,  just  as  he  teaches  the  duties  of  Rulers  and 
Subjects,  Husbands  and  "Wives,  Parents  and  Children, 
for  this  is  a  part  of  what  Christ  hath  commanded : — 
And  if,  in  any  instance,  these  obligations  are  violated 
by  members  of  the  Church,  he  is  bound  to  enforce 
the  discipline  of  the  Church  against  the  oflender. 
This  is  just  what  the  Apostles  did.     More  than  this 


POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT.  31 

the  Preacher  has  no  commission  to  teacli.     Beyond 
this,  the  Minister  has  no  authority  to  go. 

What  was  the  practical  result  of  such  a  course, 
in  the  days  of  the  Apostles  ?  And  what,  have  we 
good  reason  to  believe,  will  be  the  practical  result 
of  such  a  course  now  ?  E"ot  to  destroy  the  relation 
of  master  and  servant, — but  to  remedy  the  incidental 
evils  which  attach  to  it,  existing,  as  it  does,  among 
sinful  men.  Su]3posing  that  the  Church  could  suc- 
ceed, universally,  in  enforcing  what  Christ  hath 
commanded  in  this  case, — so  that  all  servants  become 
"  obedient  to  their  masters — with  good-will  doing 
service  as  to  the  Lord  and  not  to  men,"  and  all  mas- 
ters "  give  unto  their  servants  that  which  is  just  and 
"  equal," — All  the  incidental  evils  of  slavery  disap- 
pear. The  institution  itself  remains.  But  the  servant, 
placed  in  God's  providence  in  the  condition  of  a 
servant,  can  as  completely  .fulfill  all  the  conditions 
of  his  being  on  earth;  can  as  M'^ell,  and  thoroughly 
prepare  himself  for  heaven,  as  he  could  if  he  sustain- 
ed no  such  relation  to  another,  as  is  implied  in  his 
being  a  servant.  Christianity,  has  never  yet  had  full 
control  of  the  hearts  of  all  men,  in  any  country :  and 
hence,  we  see  less  or  more  of  incidental  evil  attach- 
ing to  all  the  relations  of  life.  But  that  the  conclu- 
sion just  stated  is  not  a  mere  speculation,  is  proven, 
by  the  fact,  that  the  Church  has,   at  this   time,  a 


32  POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT. 

larger  proportion  of  the  laboring  population  among 
its  members,  in  the  slave-holding,  than  it  has  in  the 
non-slaveholding  States  of  our  Union. 

Wherever  the  religion  of  Jesus  has  gone,  it  has 
always  corrected,  just  as  far  as  it  has  had  power,  the 
incidental  evils  attaching  to  all  the  relations  of  life. 
It  has  ameliorated  the  condition  of  the  Wife — in 
heathen  lands,  the  condition  of  the  Wife  is  that  of  a 
menial ;  the  condition  of  the  Child — ^in  Old  Eome, 
the  father  might  take  the  life  of  his  child  as  well  as 
his  slave ;  and  the  condition  of  the  slave  also.  By 
teaching  the  true  natm*e  of  the  relation  in  which  the 
parties,  severally,  stand  one  to  another,  and  enforcing 
the  discharge  of  then*  relative  duties  one  to  another, 
it  has  done  all,  of  substantial  benefit,  that  ever  has 
been  done,  towards  raising  the  down-trodden,  or 
relieving  the  oppressed. 

But  will  not  Christianity,  eventually,  put  an  end  to 
the  existence  of  Slavery  among  men  ?  I  may  be 
asked.  On  this  point,  I  have  an  opinion  ;  as  I  sup- 
pose every  reflecting  man  must  have  : — and  that 
opinion,  on  a  proper  occasion,  and  in  a  proper  place, 
I  hold  myself  ready  to  express ;  and  if  need  be, 
give  my  reasons,  therefor.  In  the  pulpit,  the  only 
answer  I  can  give,  is — On  this  point  I  can  teach 
nothing,  for  here,  Christ  hath  given  me  no  com- 
mand : — "  My  hand  is  upon  my  lips." 


POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT.  33 

Notice,  now,  the  position  inwhichthe  conduct  and 
teaching  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  places  this  sub- 
ject of  Slaveiy.  They  decide,  positively,  that  slave- 
holding  is  not  a  sin.  They  decide  further ;  that  this, 
like  all  other  civil  institutions,  is'  liable  to  abuse,  on 
the  part  both  of  the  slave  and  of  the  master ;  that  in 
their  day,  there  were  incidental  evils  attaching  to  it, 
in  its  practical  working  among  men,  and  that  it  is 
the  province  of  the  Preacher,  in  so  far  as  his  teaching 
will  go ;  and  of  the  Church,  in  so  far  as  her  autho- 
rity over  her  members  will  go,  to  reform  these 
abuses  and  correct  these  incidental  evils.  And  there 
the  duty  of  the  Preacher  and  the  authority  of  the 
Church,  ends. 

Slavery  itself,  they  treat  as  a  civil  institution ;  and 
they  never  meddle  with  it.  The  question  of  the  con- 
tinuance of  slavery,  as  a  political  question ;  and  they 
never  discuss  it — they  never  utter  one  word  on  the 
subject.  The  moment  you  decide  that  slave-holding 
is  not  a  sin,  all  pretext  for  the  Preacher  or  the  Church 
intermedling  with  such  questions  as  those  which 
have  agitated  our  country  during  the  summer  past, 
is  taken  away.  The  Kansas  question,  the  question 
respecting  the  extension  of  slavery,  is  a  purely  politi- 
cal question ;  and  the  discussion  of  it,  in  the  pulpit 
and  on  the  Sabbath,  is  as  much  a  desecration  of  holy 
place  and  holy  time,  as  would  be  a  discussion  of  the 

2* 


34  rOLITICS    AND    THE    PULPIT. 

"tariff  question,"  or  " the  distribution  of  the  public 
land." 

I  may  be  told — slavery  is  a  civil  evil,  and  a  po- 
litical curse.  Yery  well — supposing  this  be  so? 
"What  then  ?  Let  the  State  remedy  the  evil ;  Let  the 
Civil  Ruler  remove  the  curse  :  And  as  in  this  our  land 
— the  freest  under  heaven — the  ultimate  authority 
is  with  the  people — Let  the  people  see  to  it  that  their 
Civil  Kulers  do  their  duty : — And  let  all  this  be  done 
in  the  same  way,  and  by  means  of  the  same  lawful 
agencies,  used  in  other  cases  of  like  nature. 

But,  the  Preacher  in  our  country  is  a  Citizen  in 
the  State^  as  well  as  a  Minister  in  the  Church.  May 
he  not,  in  his  character  of  a  citizen,  discuss  civil  and 
politicals  question,  like  other  men  ?  Tlie  answer  to 
be  given  to  this  question,  will  be  determined  by  the 
views  we  take  of  the  nature  and  extent  of  a  minister's 
ordination  vows.  All,  I  presume,  will  admit  that  the 
hetter  course  for  the  minister,  having  been  set  apart 
for  holy  things,  is,  to  follow  Paul's  advice,  and  "  give 
"  himself  wholly  to  them." — (1.  Tim.  iv.  15.)  Put  if 
any  minister,  decide  for  himself,  that  it  is  right  for 
him  in  his  character  of  a  Citizen,  to  enter  the  arena 
of  political  strife — let  him  remember,  that  it  is  as  a 
Citizen  he  enters  that  arena,  and  let  him  act  accord- 
ingly. Does  he  feel  called  to  fight  Caesar's  battles, 
let  him  put  Caesar's  livery  on, — and  not  wear   the 


POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT.  35 

livery  of  the  Court  of  Heaven,  to  do  Csesnr  service 
m. 

For  the  Minister  of  the  Church,  to  lay  aside,  for 
the  time,  his  character  of  a  Minister,  and,  acting  sim- 
ply as  a  Citizen,  to  engage  in  political  discussion,  is 
one  thing.  For  him,  retaining  the  position  of  a  Min- 
ister of  Christ,  to  occupy  the  pulpit,  on  the  Lord's 
day,  preaohing  politics,  is  a  very  different  thing. 
The  one,  may  he  right  in  certain  circumstances.  The 
other,  never  can  he  right  in  any  circumstances  : — It  is 
a  desecration  of  the  pulpit,  a  profanation  of  the  holy 
Sabbath. 

The  anti-slavery  Preacher,  is  not  a  peculiarity  of 
this  our  age,  a  ".new  thing  under  the  sun,"  as  some 
seem  to  imagine.  As  far  back  as  the  days  of  Paul, 
such  preachers  existed,  and  they  troubled  the  Church 
then  as  now  : — And  with  the  authority  of  an  Apostle 
of  Jesus,  and  under  inspiration  of  God,  Paul  gives 
Timothy  instruction  as  to  the  course  he  ought  to  pur- 
sue with  them.  "  Let  as  many  servants  as  are  under 
"  the  yoke  count  their  own  masters  worthy  of  all 
"  honor,  that  the  name  of  God  and  his  doctrine  be 
"not  blasphemed.  And  they  that  have  believing 
"  masters,  let  them  not  despise  them,  because  they 
"  are  brethren  ;  but  rather  do  them  service,  because 
"  they  are  faithful  and  beloved,  partakers  of  the  be- 
"  nefit.     These  things  teach  and  exhort.    If  any  man 


36  POLITICS    AND    THE    PULPIT. 

"  teach  otherwise^  and  consent  not  to  wholesome  words, 
"  even  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the 
"  doctrine  which  is  according  to  godliness,  be  is  proud, 
"  knowing  nothing,  but  doting  about  questions  and 
"  strifes  of  words,  whereof  cometh  envy,  strife,  rail- 
"  ings,  evil  surmisings,  perverse  disputings  of  men  of 
"  corrupt  minds,  and  destitute  of  the  truth,  supposing 
"  that  gain  is  godliness  :  From  such  withdraw  thy- 
"5eZ/."— (I.Tim,  vi.  1-5.) 

!Notice,  the  character  of  this  preacher,  as  Paul 
gives  it — "  He  is  jproud  " — literally  puffed  up  with 
pride — wiser  in  his  own  conceit  than  seven  men  who 
can  render  a  reason — "  knowing  nothing  " — although 
he  dogmatizes  as  if  he  knew  everything — '■'•})ut  doting'^'' 
— i.  e.,  like  an  old  man  when  second  childhood  has 
come  upon  him,  repeating  again  and  again,  the  stale 
sophisms  which  have  been  exposed  a  hundred  times 
— "  doting  about  questions  and  strifes  of  words  " — 
such,  I  suppose,  as  "  taking  service  without  compen- 
"  sation,"  *    "  property    in     human     flesh,"     &c. — 

'  "  The  slave  does  all  the  work,  the  master  takes  all  the  pay  P^ 
Does  he,  indeed?  "  Whence,  then,  another  plea?  viz.:  that  free 
"  labor  is  more  profitable  than  slave  labor — because,  forsooth,  the 
"  slave  gets  a  greater  share  of  the  pay  than  the  freeman — more  pay 
"  for  less  labor :  his  own  maintenance,  with  that  of  his  children  and 
"  parents,  and  security  for  the  future  to  boot.  In  truth,  if  the  needs 
"  of  the  slave  are  duly  cared  for,  the  master  does  not  *  withhold  the 
*•  earnings  of  the  slave.''  " — (Samuel  Nott.)     In  every  Southern  State, 


POLITICS   AND   THE   PULPIT.  37 

"  Whereof  cometh  envy,  strife,  railings — hlasphamiai, 
i.  e.,  malicious  railings — ^^  evil  surmisings  " — uj)ono- 
iai  jponarai,  i.  e.,  wicked  suspicions — ^^ perverse  dis- 
'■''  puling s  {fallings  one  of  another,  marginal),  of  men 
"  of  corrupt  minds  and  destitute  of  the  truthP  Can 
■we  not  find,  now,  those  wlio,  had  they  been  living 
then,  might  have  sat  for  this  portrait,  painted  1800 
years  ago  ? 

Do  Paul's  words — "railings,  wicked  suspicions, 
"  gallings  one  of  another — destitute  of  the  truth," 
seem  sharp  and  harsh  ?  Let  me  read  you  a  part  of  an 
article,  published  a  few  weeks  ago,  in  the  "  N.  T.  In- 
dependent," a  paper — religious,  they  call  it — edited 
by  three  Rev'd  D.  D.'s.  "  The  mass  of  the  popula- 
"  tion  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  slave-region  of  the 
"  South,  are  descended  from  the  transported  convicts 
"and  outcasts  of  Great  Britain.  For  a  century  pre- 
"  vious  to  the  Revolution,  thousands  of  those  ofFscour- 
"  ings  of  the  jails  and  hulks  of  England,  were  poured 
"  out  on  the  shores  of  Maryland  and  Yirginia,  the 
"  Carolinas  and  Georgia — and  nowhere  else.  Those 
"  WEEE  THE  Penal  Colonies  of  Gkeat  Britain.  O 
"  glorious  chivalry  and  hereditary  aristocracy  of  the 
"  South !  Peerless  first  families  of  Yirginia  and  Ca- 
"  rolina !     '  Look  unto  the   rock   whence   ye   were 

the  law  compels  the  master  to  provide  for  his  slave,  not  in  health 
only,  but  in  sickness  and  old  age. 


38  POLITICS    AND   THE   PULPIT.- 

"hewn,  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye  were 
"  digged.'  Progeny  of  the  highwayman,  and  horse- 
"  thieves,  and  sheep-stealers,  and  pick-pockets  of  old 
"  England !  '  Go,  vilest  of  the  vile,'  out  of  all  union 
"  with  communities  of  decent  origin,  and  following 
'*  your  true  natural  and  moral  affinities,  seek  your 
"  real  kindred  and  political  fraternities  with  those 
"  whose  ancestors  were  turned  from  the  ocean-path 
"which  yours  took,  and  founded  their  '  chivalrous ' 
"  colonies  in  JSTew  South  "Wales  and  Van  Dieman's 
"Land." 

In  copying  this,  for  the  purposes  of  exhibiting  "  the 
"  spirit  of  the  press,"  the  Editors  of  the  "  I^.  Y.  Ob- 
server "  remark  :  "  The  annals  of  scurrility  may  be 
"  searched  in  vain,  to  find  language  more  unbecom- 
"  ing  a  decent  press,  not  to  say,  a  religious  newspaper, 
"  conducted  by  ministers  of  Him  who  when  he  was 
"  reviled,  reviled  not  again."  "  Scurrilous,  unhecomr 
ing  a  decent i^ress'''' — true — but  not  half  so  discrimi- 
nating— not  half  so  true  to  the  life  as  Paul's  words — 
"  railings,  wicked  suspicions,  gallings  one  of  another 
— destitute  of  the  truth.'''' 

What  shall  we  do  in  such  a  case  as  this  ? — Indig- 
nantly hurl  back  the  denunciations  uttered  against 
us?— "fight  the  Devil  with  lire?"— God  forbid! 
"Michael  the  archangel  contended  with  the  Devil" 
once  ;  but  he  fought  not  with  fire, — his  lips  uttered  no 


POLITICS    AND    THE   PULPIT,  89 

"railing  accusation." — (Jude  9.)  'Twill  be  an  evil 
day  for  the  Church  when  the  tongue  of  David  learns 
to  rival  that  of  cursing  Shimei.  Far  wiser,  the  direc- 
tion of  Paul :  ^^ Frorn  such  withdraw  thyself.''^  Art 
thou  a  minister  of  Christ? — "From  such  withdraw 
thyself."  Stand  not  thou  in  the  company  of  the 
"railing"  Priest,  lest  the  judgment  of  God  come 
upon  thee,  and  "  thou  pierce  thyself  with  many  sor- 
rows."— (1  Tim.  vi,  10.)  Art  thou  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  Christ — "  From  such  withdraw  thyself." 
Be  not  thou  a  partaker  in  their  sins. 

'•'•From  such  loithdraw  thyself.  Let  them  alone. 
It  is  God's  command  they  are  disobeying.  And 
God's  Priest  may  not  long  disobey  God's  command, 
without  being  known  by  all  as  "  a  raging  wave  of  the 
sea,  foaming  out  his  own  shame."  The  "railing" 
priest  of  fifteen  years  ago,  "  who  would  not  consent  to 
wholesome  words,  even  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  doctrine  which  is  according  to  god- 
liness," is  the  ranting,  open-mouthed  Infidel  and 
Atheist  of  to-day.  The  Bible,  and  the  popular  isms 
of  the  day — the  progeny  of  a  jDseudo-science  and 
pseudo-religion — are  so  irreconcilably  at  variance, 
that  the  latter  can  no  more  tolerate  the  former,  thau 
the  former  the  latter.  Though  they  may  be  hatched 
and  brooded  within  the  walls  of  the  Church,  they  can- 


40  POLITICS   AND   THE    PULPIT. 

not  long  stand  the  blaze  of  truth  which  the  Word  of 
God  sheds  around  it. 

The  strife  and  political  agitation  of  the  day — with 
these  the  Church,  by  God's  appointment,  has  nothing 
to  do : — And  if  she  will  but  follow  Heaven's  direc- 
tion, they  can  never  injure  her.  Her  range  of  oper- 
ation is  higher ;  far  above  the  storms  which  gather 
and  rage  on  earth  surface,  "  of  the  earth,  earthy." 
They '  cannot  cast  even  a  shadow  upon  the  sun-lit 
field  which  God  has  assigned  her  as  her  portion. 
'Tis  one  of  the  marks  of  the  divine  parentage  of  the 
Church,  .that  the  inheritance  assigned  her,  is  so  near 
Heaven. 

Man  of  God — "  From  all  such  withdraw  thyself," 
— "  Wash  thine  hands  in  innocency  and  so  compass 
God's  altar,"  and  it  shall  ever  be  thy  blessed  privi- 
ledge  "to  publish"  God's  good"  providence  "with 
the  voice  of  thanksgiving,  and'tb  tell  of  all  his  won- 
drous works." 


/^ 


LETTERS 


TO 


BY  THE 

REV.    HENRY    C.    LAY, 

A    FBESBYTBB    OF    ALABAMA. 

REVISED  AND   ENLARGED. 
THIRD    EDITION. 


The  old  18  better. — luke  v,  S9. 
Uudcrstandest  thou  what  thou  rendest?     And  he  said,  How  can  I,  except  some  mftn  Bhould  guido 

me  '.—Acts  viii.  30,  31. 


Nero  fork: 

GEN.  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  UNION, 

DANIEL   DAKA,   JE.,    AGENT, 
DEPOSITORY  No.  20  JOHN  STREET. 

1853. 


EoUrtd  aetordtng  to  Act  of  Congreu,  In  the  year  18(8,  by 

JOHN  W.  MITCHELL, 

(a«  TreMurer  of  tie  Gl«neral  Proteitant  Episcopal  Sunday  School  tJnion,) 

Id  tba  Clark't  Offioa  of  the  Diitrict  Court  of  tlia  United  Statet  for  the  Southtm  Diitriet  of  ITaw  York. 


PREFATORY  NOTE  TO  SECOND  EDITION. 


A  NEW  edition  of  this  Tract  having  been  called  for, 
the  Author  has  carefully  revised  it,  and  has,  he  would 
fain  hope,  rendered  it  more  complete,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  two  additional  Letters. 

He  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  for  many  of  the 
most  valuable  thoughts  in  the  Letters  now  added,  to 
one  set  over  him  in  the  Lord ;  whose  judgment,  at 
least  in  matters  of  experimental  religion,  no  Church- 
man will  fail  to  respect.  This  circumstance  encourages 
the  Author  to  hope  that  his  humble  effort  to  set  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  in  a  clear  and  distinct 
point  of  view,  may  not  be  altogether  unavailing. 

HuNTSViLLK,  Alabama. 
Advent,  1852. 


LETTER  I. 

My  Good  Friend, 

We  often  hear  it  said,  "  It  makes  no  difference  what  a  man 
believes,  so  Ms  heart  is  right."  Your  case  most  forcibly  re- 
minds me  how  false  that  maxim  is.  How  can  I  doubt  your 
sincerity  when  you  tell  me  that  you  are  anxious  to  do  what  is 
right  ?  that  whenever  you  can  find  out  the  truth,  you  are 
ready  to  embrace  it;  whenever  you  can  see  your  duty,  you 
will  perform  it  at  every  hazard  ?  But  you  are  tossed  upon 
the  sea  of  conflicting  opinions,  and  cannot  for  the  life  of  you 
tell  which  way  to  go. 

Now  see  what  a  difference  it  does  make  with  you.  You 
have  never  become  a  regular  member  of  any  denomination  of 
Christians.  You  have  no  particular  religious  attachments, 
and  of  course  have  no  regular  habits  of  worship;  you  are  all 
things  by  turns,  and  nothing  long.  You  feel  no  special  in- 
terest in  any  one  congregation  or  religious  society;  so  that  it 
is  the  business  of  no  one  in  particular  to  look  after  you;  and 
your  contributions  to  good  objects  are  too  much  scattered  to 
produce  any  decided  effect,  or  to  let  you  see  the  good  fruit 
thereof.  Your  children  are  growing  up  around  you  without 
any  decided  religious  views,  or  any  intelligent  understanding 


6  LETTER    I. 

of  the  Gospel,  and  its  privileges  and  obligations.  You  are 
restless,  uncomfortable,  and  turned  about  by  every  wind  of 
doctrine.  You  are  a  mechanic  without  a  trade,  a  soldier  in 
the  army,  belonging  to  no  regiment  or  company,  with  no  uni- 
form on,  without  special  claim  on  any  one  in  particular  for 
guidance,  rations,  or  medical  attendance 

Yerily,  my  friend,  I  believe  the  worst  choice  you  could 
make  is  better  than  no  choice  at  all,  and  I  dare  not  conceal 
my  fears,  that  if  you  try  to  get  to  heaven  all  alone,  you  will 
starve  to  death,  or  break  down  by  the  way,  and  so  meet  with 
bitter  disappointment.  "  The  journey  is  too  great  for  thee," 
my  brother.  God  himself  tells  you  so,  and  has  provided  a 
variety  of  helps  and  means  to  keep  up  your  strength  and  to 
prevent  you  from  going  astray. 

Believing  that  your  comfort,  your  usefulness  in  life,  and 
your  safety  too,  depend  greatly  upon  your  taking  a  decided 
stand,  and  that  very  shortly,  "  I  also  will  show  my  opinion," 
and  beg  that  you  wUl  give  it  value  just  so  far  as  it  commends 
itself  to  your  own  good  judgment  and  sober  reflection.  I 
must  remind  you  too,  that  God  must  help  us,  or  we  cannot 
even  see  the  truth,  and  beseech  you  to  lay  aside  for  a  moment 
what  you  have  in  hand,  that  you  may  ask  for  his  Holy  Spirit  to 
clear  away  the  mists  of  error  and  prejudice  from  your  eyes, 
and  to  enable  you  to  say  most  heartily,  "  That  which  I  see 
not,  teach  Thou  me." 

I  proceed  then  to  state  as  distinctly  as  I  can,  what  I  un- 
derstand to  be  the  difficulties  which  lie  in  your  way. 

You  say,  that  you  have  been  reading  the  Bible  all  your  life, 
and  understand  it  no  better  than  you  did  at  Jirst ;  that  almost 


LETTER   I.  7 

every  doctrine  has  some  text  to  support  it;  that  the  last  man  you 
talk  to,  puts  you  to  silence  if  he  does  not  convince  you  ;  that  it 
is  a  hopeless  task  for  a  plain  man  like  you  to  compare  the  merits 
of  all  the  various  religious  denominations  ;  and  that  you  have 
tried  your  very  best  to  become  converted,  and  have  never  been 
able  to  succeed.  And  your  conclusion  is,  that  one  way  is  as 
good  as  another  ;  that  you  will  wish  well  to  all,  do  the  best  you 
know  how,  and  entreat  the  Lord  Jesus  to  be  very  merciful  to  a 
bewildered  and  frail  creature, 

Now,  if  I  undertake  to  guide  you  out  of  this  tangled  wil- 
derness, I  must  be  allowed  to  do  it  in  my  own  way.  I  must 
ask  you  to  have  patience  with  me,  and  to  hear  me  out  before 
you  say  my  opinion  is  worth  no  more  than  any  other  man's. 
As  mi7ie,  it  is  worth  just  nothing  at  all ;  but  if  it  be  supported 
by  plain,  sensible  reasons,  it  may  be  worth  a  good  deal.  Let 
us  then  look  at  this  matter  of  denominational  controversies. 

Suppose  I  were  to  tell  you  that  you,  even  you,  not  a 
book-learned  man,  ought  to  acquaint  yourself  with  the  dis- 
puted points,  and  to  draw  a  conclusion  of  your  own,  you 
would,  doubtless,  think  me  very  extravagant  in  my  require- 
ments. But  let  me  ask,  can  you  tell,  without  putting  yourself 
to  some  little  pains,  that  success  is  so  hopeless  ?  You  remem- 
ber that  case  which  excited  so  much  attention  at  our  last 
Circuit  Court.  You  were  on  the  jury.  There  were  some 
thirty  or  forty  witnesses  examined.  Some  told  the  truth  as 
they  believed  it,  others  plainly  leaned  to  one  side  ;  and 
others  again  were  generally  believed  to  have  lied  outright. 
They  contradicted  each  other  about  the  facts  of  the  case, 
and  as  for  their  opinions,  who  could  reconcile  them  ?    Half 


8  LETTERI. 

a  dozen  lawyers  wi'anglecl  over  the  merits,  and  thick  was  the 
dust  of  controversy.  At  one  time  it  appeared  to  me  hopeless 
to  see  through  the  mist.  But  you  were  sworn,  with  eleven 
other  plain  men,  to  decide  the  matter  justly;  and  in  the  end 
you  did  very  confidently  render  a  verdict,  affecting  in  no  small 
degree  the  character  and  interest  of  the  parties.  And  how 
did  you  come  to  your  conclusion  ?  Why,  first  of  all,  you 
perceived  that  a  great  deal  that  was  said  was  without  special 
importance,  and  you  threw  all  that  on  one  side  as  rubbish. 
You  found  something  agreed  to  on  all  hands,  and  you  put 
that  in  a  safe  place  as  true.  When  the  case  came  to  be  ar- 
gued, you  saw,  by  the  help  of  the  lawyers,  that  its  merits 
hinged  upon  two  or  three  questions  ;  and  to  these  you  gave 
your  chief  attention.  Although  no  lawyer,  your  own  good 
sense,  and  the  Judge's  charge,  supplied  you  with  some  sound 
rules  of  judging,  by  which  you  could  be  guided.  And  thus 
you  made  up  your  mind. 

Now,  all  the  conflicting  parties  in  religion  have  their 
representatives  ;  the  chief  arguments  are  contained  in  books 
or  tracts  that  are  cheap,  accessible,  and  that  do  not  require 
a  very  long  time  to  read.  And  upon  examination  you  would 
find  that  there  are  many  points  of  agreement,  and  that  the 
controversy  is  capable  of  being  narrowed  down  far  more  than 
one  might  suppose. 

Indeed,  you  plain  men  are  too  modest  ;  too  diffident  of 
your  abilities.  I  see  you  constantly  examining  and  deciding 
questions  that  are  very  profound,  while  you  do  but  peep  into 
this  and  draw  back  in  alarm.  You,  for  instance,  are  very 
decided  in  your  political  opinions  ;  and  although  some  of  the 


LETTER    I.  9 

most  eminent  men  in  our  country  have  held  the  opposite  opin- 
ion, you  do  yet  stoutly  deny  the  constitutionality  of  a  United 
States  Bank;  you  do  not  scruple  to  bring  your  neighbors  to 
your  way  of  thinking,  and  you  act  upon  it  at  the  polls  by 
your  vote. 

Are  we  not  in  danger,  then,  of  making  too  much  of  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of 'religious  inquiry  ?  May  it  not  be  that 
if  men  would  bring  to  these  inquiries  just  that  honest,  atten- 
tive, candid  spirit  which  they  carry  into  the  jury-box,  they 
would  arrive  at  just  and  satisfactory  conclusions  ? 

Indeed,  I  do  not  fear  to  affirm,  that  the  time  spent  in  one 
year  in  reading  the  political  newspapers,  if  devoted  to  the 
serious  and  attentive  perusal  of  but  a  few  standard  authors, 
would  put  a  man  of  ordinary  intelligence,  in  possession  of 
clear  and  distinct  views  as  to  the  points  usually  controverted, 
and  enable  him  to  form  a  judgment  thereon.  Religion,  like 
other  things,  must  be  studied  in  order  to  be  understood. 
Time,  patience,  and  a  willing  mind  must  be  brought  to  its  in- 
vestigation. Men  must  take  trouble,  if  they  would  find  out 
any  thing  worth  knowing. 

"  He  that  by  the  plough  -would  thiive, 
Himself  must  either  hold  or  diive." 
1* 


LETTER  n. 

Mt  Worthy  Friend, 

I  NOW  proceed  to  consider  what  you  urge  about  the  diffi- 
culty of  understanding  the  Scriptures,  and  about  the  ease 
with  which  very  opposite  doctrines  are  proved  out  of  the 
same  books  and  passages  ;  and  here  let  us  take  care  not  to 
state  these  points  too  strongly,  nor  to  leave  out  those  limita- 
tions necessary  to  make  your  positions  strictly  true.  I  will 
grant  most  freely  that  an  ingenious  and  plausible  man  can 
make  any  thing  out  of  any  thing,  whether  in  politics,  law,  or 
religion ;  for  the  difficulty  is  in  no  way  peculiar  to  religion ; 
provided,  however,  that  you  permit  him  to  select  his  own 
points,  to  put  his  own  meaning  upo7i  words,  and  to  put  his 
01071  notions  into  other  peopWs  mouths.  But  if  you  require 
him  to  give  you  reasons,  instead  of  assertions,  and  try  what 
he  says  by  certain  common-sense  principles,  which  are  in  every- 
day use,  he  may  puzzle  you  a  little,  bpt  you  can  plainly  see 
that  the  case  is  not  proved.  In  other  words,  if  you  do,  be- 
sides listening,  turn  things  over  in  your  mind,  and  take  the 
trouble  to  measure  and  weigh  what  is  said  to  you,  you  will  be 
able  to  find  good  and  substantial  reasons  why  some  things 
are  to  be  believed  and  some  to  be  rejected. 


LETTER    II.  11 

Let  me  mention  some  of  these  principles  by  which  you 
may  try  what  you  hear.  One  text  must  not  be  explained  so 
as  flatly  to  contradict  another  text ;  it  must  not  be  taken  out 
of  its  proper  connection  ;  nor  must  we  forget  the  times  when 
and  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  written.  We  must 
not  build  up  an  important  doctrine  upon  one  single  text,  and 
that  of  obscure  meaning  ;  and  if  a  man  propounds  a  new 
doctrine, — one  that  all  the  fathers  and  martyrs  and  wise  and 
holy  men  of  past  ages  knew  nothing  of, — we  need  pay  him 
no  attention,  unless  he  presents  the  most  powerful  and  con- 
vincing reasons  to  show  that  all  the  world  has  been  wrong, 
and  that  he  is  the  man  to  whom  wisdom  appertains.  You 
are  not  bound  to  follow  every  man  through  the  fog  in  which 
he  has  involved  himself.  Tor  instance,  you  sit  down  and 
read,  in  your  Bible,  how  Cornelius,  a  Gentile,  prayed  to  God; 
that  God  said,  his  prayers  and  alms  had  come  up  before  him  ; 
that  he  sent  Peter  to  him,  who  acquainted  him  with  the  Gos- 
pel and  baptized  him.  Now,  should  your  neighbor  ply  you 
for  hours  with  his  new  doctrine,  that  an  unbaptized  man  must 
not  pray,  and  bring  up  the  finest  arguments  in  the  world, 
your  own  good  sense  should  lead  you  to  say,  Your  arguments 
must  be  wrong  ;  for  here  is  a  plain  case  in  which  an  unbap- 
tized man  prayed,  and  God  heard  his  prayers.  I  do  insist 
that  if  you  will  think  as  well  as  read — -judge  as  well  as  hear 
— ^make  men  give  you  good  reasons  why  you  should  suppose 
that  a  text  means  something  entirely  different  from  what  it 
seems  to  say — you  would  not  be  so  perplexed,  and  with  some 
security  could  reach  the  conclusion, — ^this  man  speaks  truth, 
and  that  one  is  mistaken. 


iS  LETTER    II. 

In  truth,  laziness  is  a  besetting  sin  of  nearly  all  of  us  ; 
we  do  not  like  to  take  trouble,  especially  in  the  way  of  think- 
ing. To  hear  a  man  talk,  and  to  fall  in  with  what  he  says, 
is  easy ;  to  reflect  upon  it  is  labor.  And  I  must  remind  you, 
vejy  seriously,  that  you  are  just  as  much  responsible  to  God 
for  your  opinions  as  for  your  practice.  Nobody's  judgment 
'can  excuse  you  for  not  using  your  own. 

And  now  let  me  ask,  Is  it  strictly  true  that  you  have 
learned  nothing  certain  and  definite  from  reading  the  Bible  ? 
I  candidly  admit  that  it  contains  many  things  hard  to  be 
understood,  and  capable  of  being  perverted  ;  that  it  is  not 
easy  to  derive  from  it  a  scheme  of  Divinity ;  and  that  many 
of  its  topics  are  so  mysterious  that  men  will  always  differ 
about  them.  When  we  remember  that  the  Bible  is  a  collec- 
tion of  books  written  by  many  individuals,  at  various  periods 
of  the  world,  and  in  languages  now  disused  ;  when  we  con- 
sider how  many  allusions  there  are  to  things  and  customs 
unknown  in  our  day,  and  that  it  treats  of  the  sublimest  and 
most  awful  subjects  known  to  man  ;  it  would  be  strange  that 
a  man  could  understand  it  thoroughly  by  merely  reading  it. 
You  need  a  teacher;  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  show,  by  and 
by,  that  God  has  appointed  you  a  teacher,  and  that  it  is 
a  dangerous  thing  for  a  man  to  think  that  any  notion  or 
impression  which  he  may  have  got  by  reading  the  Bible,  as 
people  generally  read  it,  is  what  the  Bible  teaches  us,  as 
God's  truth. 

Besides  mysterious  doctrines,  however,  the  Bible  relates 
facts,  and  enjoins  duties  ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm 
that,  in  relation  to  these,  you  need  be  at  very  Uttle  loss;  and 


LETTER    II.  13 

moreover,  that  you  have  already  tolerably  distinct  and  clear 
views  about  them.  You  have  no  doubt  upon  your  mind  that 
the  Bible  reveals  to  you  God,  the  Father  Almighty,  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth.  It  declares,  as  distinctly  as  human 
language  can  express  the  truth,  that  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son, 
and  our  Lord,  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  born  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  ;  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate  ;  was  cruci- 
fied, dead  and  buried  ;  that  the  third  day  he  rose  from  the 
dead,  and  ascended  into  heaven  ;  that  he  sitteth  on  the  right 
hand  of  God,  and  from  thence  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick 
and  dead.  You  do  not  doubt  that  there  is  a  Holy  Ghost ; 
that  Christ  established  a  Holy  Universal  Church;  that  he 
revealed  to  us  the  Remission  of  sin,  the  Resurrection  of  our 
bodies,  and  Life  everlasting. 

There  is  not  one  of  these  propositions  but  what  is  capable 
of  being  proved  beyond  all  doubt  or  controversy.  Of  this 
much,  at  least,  you  yourself,  I  believe,  are  thoroughly  per- 
suaded. And  these  very  propositions  were  collected  together 
before  there  was  any  division  between  the  Eastern  and  West- 
em  branches  of  the  Church,  fifteen  hundred  years  or  more 
ago,  into  what  is  called  the  Creed,  and  were  declared  by  the 
Church  to  constitute  all  that  is  absolutely  necessary  for  a 
Christian  man  to  beheve.  Bear  this  Creed  in  mind,  for  we 
must  come  back  to  it  after  a  while. 

I  think  we  have  found  this  much,  at  least,  that  is  not  to 
be  disputed.  Let  us  turn  our  thoughts  to  the  precepts.  Do 
you  doubt  at  all  that  the  Bible  teaches  the  necessity  of  Re- 
pentance, Faith,  Charity,  and  Holiness  ?  I  do  not  see  how 
you  can  entertain  even  a  suspicion  on  these  points.    The  Ten 


14  LETTERII. 

Commandments  are  not  hard  to  understand.  The  duties  of 
being  baptized  and  of  receiving  the  Holy  Communion  are 
most  expressly  enjoined,  and  are  not  mentioned  in  any  dark 
or  mysterious  way. 

If  you  cannot  understand  all  of  a  man's  speech,  you  can 
hardly  misunderstand  the  general  purport  of  it,  unless  he  is 
trying  on  purpose  to  bewilder  you.  And  so  you  can  hardly 
have  failed  to  catch  the  one  great  idea  of  Scripture,  the  gen- 
eral strain  and  spirit  and  design  of  it ;  viz.,  that  man  is  very 
guilty  and  very  sinful;  that  Christ,  to  remove  our  guilt,  stood 
in  our  place  and  suffered  in  our  stead  ;  that  to  remove  our 
sinfulness  and  make  us  holy,  he  sent  his  Holy  Spirit  to  con- 
vert us  and  change  our  sinful  natures  ;  that  we  must  own 
our  guilt  and  be  sorry  for  it,  must  put  our  case  into  the 
hands  of  Christ  and  trust  in  him  for  pardon  ;  that  we  must 
pray  for  the  help  of  his  Spirit,  walk  in  his  laws,  and  forsake 
our  sins. 

Is  the  Bible,  then,  a  book  of  riddles,  when  you  can  see  in 
it  a  uniform  and  glorious  plan  for  saving  sinners  ?  When  its 
historical  outline,  its  great  facts,  are  told  with  the  utmost 
simplicity,  and  precepts  given  which  apply  to  every  circum- 
stance of  life  ? 

My  good  friend,  you  see  that  you  have  learned  a  great 
deal,  you  believe  a  great  deal.  You  already  know  enough 
to  make  it  your  plain  duty  to  live  soberly,  righteously,  and 
godly  ;  to  be  diligent  in  prayer  ;  to  restrain  your  sinful  appe- 
tites ;  to  guard  against  the  love  of  money  ;  and,  in  fine,  to 
make  it  your  chief  study  to  find  out  the  will  of  God,  and 
your  great  business  to  perform  it.     Acknowledge  then  frankly 


LETTER    II.  15 

to  yourself  that  you  have  learned  much  from  your  Bible ;  and 
continue  diligently  and  prayerfully  to  read  in  it  by  day  and 
meditate  therein  by  night  ;  nor  let  the  difficulty  of  under- 
standing what  is  darkly  spoken,  be  an  excuse  for  neglecting 
that  which  is  written  as  with  a  sunbeam.  Scripture  has 
shallows  in  which  a  lamb  may  wade,  as  well  as  depths  in 
which  an  elephant  may  swim.  An  earnest  spirit  can  readily 
learn  enough  to  place  itself  within  the  limits  of  pardon  ;  for 
"  if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
believe  in  thine  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the' 
dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved  ;"  rescued  from  the  condemnation 
and  the  power  of  sin.  To  find  out  all  the  duties  binding 
upon  you  hi  the  new  relation  of  God's  child  and  friend,  is, 
indeed,  a  life-long  business,  a  matter  requiring  thought  and 
effort  and  anxiety.  Do  first  what  you  know  you  ought  to 
do,  and  what  you  know  how  to  do,  and  having  thus  been 
faithful  even  in  a  very  little,  more  light  and  knowledge  shall 
be  given  you.  ^ 


LETTER  in. 

My  Dear  Friend,    •      .     ■ 

I  FEAR  that  by  this  time  you  are  ready  to  consider  me 
one  of  Job's  comforters  ;  and  to  conclude  that  I  do  not  ap- 
preciate your  honest  difficulties.  But  indeed  I  do  appreciate 
them,  and  having  showed  wherein  they  were  overrated,  I 
shaU  now  acknowledge  that,  to  a  certain  extent,  they  are 
real  grounds  of  complaint. 

The  general  spirit  of  the  Bible,  and  a  knowledge  of  the 
chief  facts  and  duties  therein  contained,  are  not  enough  to 
satisfy  a  sincere  inquirer  after  eternal  life  ;  he  desires  most 
naturally  an  acquaintance  mth  all  its  holy  teachings  ;  and  in 
order  to  secure  his  religious  peace  and  progress,  he  must 
leave  the  first  j)rinciples  and  go  on  to  perfection,  exchanging 
the  sincere  milk  of  the  word  for  its  more  substantial  nourish- 
ment. The  question  about  the  Church  must  be  settled,  and 
he  must  have  his  place  in  it,  and  reasons  to  repose  confidence 
in  it,  or  he  cannot  be  a  contented,  useful,  growing  Christian. 
Indeed,  he  cannot  fulfil  one  of  the  great  terms  of  pardon, 
confessing  Christ  before  men,  without  being  baptized,  and  so 
becoming  a  member  of  the  Church. 

I  have  said  heretofore  that  you  needed  a  reliable  teacher, 


LETTER    III.  17 

and  now  renew  the  assertion.  Lock  up  a  smart,  good  boy 
with  a  Latin  grammar,  a  dictionary,  and  a  few  Roman 
authors.  He  may  learn  Latin  ;  some  have  done  so  under 
these  circumstances  ;  but  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hun- 
dred the  experiment  would  fail ;  even  if  success  followed  in 
the  hundredth  case,  it  would  be  under  great  disadvantages, 
and  the  child  would  be  months  in  finding  out  what  a  good 
teacher  could  have  told  him  in  five  minutes.  So  a  man  may 
make  hunself  a  lawyer,  by  studying  without  any  comment 
the  volumes  containing  the  law  of  his  country,  but  it  would 
be  a  very  painful,  laborious,  and  uncertain  undertaking. 

Now  we  have  no  reason  to  think  that  God  ever  designed 
that  the  world  should  be  converted  only,  or  chiefly,  by  read- 
ing the  Bible.  And  I  cannot  agree  with  my  neighbors  who 
say,  that  all  a  man  need  do  in  order  to  be  saved,  is  to  read 
his  Bible  and  pray.  I  would  tell  him  to  read  and  pray,  and 
lay  great  stress  upon  those  duties,  but  I  could  not  let  my 
advice  stop  there.  Some  think  that  to  scatter  Bibles  is  the 
greatest  and  most  urgent  business  of  Christians  ;  and  indeed 
it  is  a  glorious  thing  to  place  the  word  of  life  in  the  hands 
of  man  ;  it  does  not  follow,  however,  that  because  men  have 
a  Bible,  they  will  read  it  ;  nor  because  they  read  it,  that 
they  will  understand  it,  and  obey  its  teachings.  I  repeat, 
man  wants  not  only  a  Bible,  but  a  reliable  teacher  to  explain 
it,  to  enforce  it,  and  to  keep  it  before  his  mind.  And  while 
I  do  not  know  of  any  infallible  teacher,  who  will  not  only  in- 
struct you,  but  do  all  your  thinking  for  yon,  I  do  know  a 
safe  one,  and  shall,  before  I  end,  direct  you  to  her. 

When  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  went  away  into  heaven,  he 


18  LETTER    III. 

left  to  us  his  tx'uth  to  make  us  free.  Now,  I  think  you  may 
plainly  see  that  three  great  means  were  devised  in  order  that 
this  truth  may  avail  to  our  salvation.  First  of  all,  it  was 
committed  to  writing,  that  there  might  be  no  mistake  about 
it  ;  in  the  next  place,  a  ministry  was  appointed  to  hold  it  up 
before  the  eyes  of  men,  that  it  might  not  be  forgotten  ;  and 
lastly,  the  Holy  Spirit  was  sent  to  open  our  hearts,  so  that 
we  may  love  it  and  embrace  it.  When  the  Ethiopian  Eunuch 
was  reading  his  Bible  and  trying  hard  to  understand  a 
difficult  part  of  it,  he  felt  that  he  needed  some  man  to  guide 
him,  and  God  did  send  him  a  guide.  I  trust  you  will  find 
your  case  like  his. 

Your  general  acquaintance  with  Holy  Scripture  assures 
you  that  Christ  did  establish  a  society  called  the  Church,  and 
set  officers  over  it,  and  required  every  man  to  become  a  mem- 
ber of  it.  Let  me  ask  you  to  notice  some  plain  statements 
about  this  matter. 

We  do  find  Christian  people  exhorted  to  search  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  it  was  called  "noble"  to  do  so  ;  they  were  told  to 
prove  all  things  ;  to  count  all  Scripture  profitable  ;  and  not 
to  believe  an  angel  from  heaven  who  should  contradict  the 
word  revealed.  But  the  idea  of  converting  men  by  putting 
in  their  hands  copies  of  the  Bible  is  no  where  found.  Preach- 
ing was  to  be  the  great  instrument  of  convincing  and  teach- 
ing men  :  "  It  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to 
save  them  that  believe."  The  living  voice  was  to  utter  the 
words  of  life,  and  mortal  hands  to  dispense  its  benefits. 

And  who  was  to  preach  ?  Every  body  ?  Our  Saviour 
appeared  to  more  than  five  hundred  brethren  at  once,  after 


LETTER    III.  19 

his  resurrection,  but  did  not  tell  them  to  preach.  No  ;  he 
assembled  the  Eleven  Apostles,  and  said,  "  Goye  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  all  nations."  "As  my  Father  hath  sent  me, 
even  so  send  I  you."  So  that  preaching  is  a  privilege  and  a 
duty  assigned,  not  to  all,  but  to  a  certain  class  of  men. 
These  Apostles  were  not  only  to  teach  men,  but  to  baptize 
them,  and  thus  receive  them  into  God's  family  ;  they  were  to 
feed  them,  and  admonish  them,  and  to  watch  for  their  souls. 
"We  are  directly  told  "  God  hath  set  some  (officers)  in  his 
Church — first  Apostles,  secondarily  Prophets,  thirdly  Teach- 
ers ;"  and  the  people  are  enjoined,  "  Now  we  beseech  you, 
brethren,  know  them  that  are  over  you  in  the  Lord,  and  ad- 
monish you,  and  esteem  them  very  highly  in  love  for  their 
work's  sake  ;"  "  Obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  and 
submit  yourselves,  for  they  watch  for  your  souls  as  they  that 
must  give  account."  Thus,  there  are,  you  see,  rehgious 
teachers  to  whose  advice  you  must  listen,  and  whose  lawful 
admonitions  you  are  even  bound  to  obey. 

I  would  have  you  observe,  again,  that  the  Scripture  has 
not  a  word  to  make  us  think  that  there  was  to  be  any  other 
than  this  one  Church  of  Christ.  The  Apostles  were  told  to 
teach  all  nations  ;  and  they  did  teach  them  by  nations,  and 
gave  to  each  nation  the  Church  in  its  integrity.  There  was 
in  the  Apostles'  days  no  division  in  the  Church,  except  this 
necessary  one  of  place.  In  one  sense  of  the  word,  there 
were  many  Churches — the  Church  at  Rome,  the  Church  at 
Corinth,  the  Church  at  Jerusalem.  But  in  the  strict  and 
proper  sense,  there  was  only  one  Church — the  Catholic  or 
Universal  Church  of  Christ — and  he  who  was  a  member  of 


20  LETTERIII. 

it  at  Rome  was  a  member  of  it  at  Corintli.  Rival  sects  and 
names,  like  those  we  now  have,  were  unknown  in  those  holy 
days,  and  those  who  would  make  divisions  and  name  them- 
selves after  men,  were  most  sternly  reproved. 

Now,  if  you  can  find  that  Church  which  was  planted  by 
the  Apostles  among  your  nation,  and  which  has  stood  in  her 
place  age  after  age,  is  it  not,  in  the  highest  degree,  probable 
that  she  is  your  teacher  ?  And  unless  you  have  some  reason 
to  suspect  her  goodness,  ought  you  not  to  listen  first  of  aU  to 
what  she  has  to  say  ? 

And  now,  methinks  you  are  almost  disposed  to  give  me 
up  ;  but  bear  with  me  a  while.  I  promise,  as  an  honest  man, 
not  to  puzzle  you,  or  to  entice  you  into  water  deep  enough  to 
drown  you.  Let  us  look  boldly  at  this  question — ^What  so- 
.  ciety  of  Christians  is  to  me  the  true  and  lawful  descendant 
of  that  Church  spoken  of  in  the  Bible  ? 

Do  not  say  to  me  here,  as  sufficient  to  make  me  forbear 
any  further  speech,  that  there  are  two  hundred  denominations 
of  Christians  in  the  United  States,  and  that  it  is  hopeless  to 
examine  the  merits  of  each.  I  am  well  aware  that  our 
country  is  divided  up  into  a  large  number  of  sects  and 
parties  in  religion,  and  were  we  to  attempt  to  examine  each 
and  every  one  by  itself,  it  would  be  an  endless  task.  I  pro- 
pose, therefore,  to  simplify  the  matter  by  arranging  them  in 
what  may  be  called  groups,  so  that  out  of  the  two  hundred 
some  one  hundred  and  ninety-seven  or  eight  shall  stand  to- 
gether. I  do  this  without  intending  any  disparagement  to 
any  body  of  Christians,  and  without  meaning  in  any  wise  to 
confound  them  all  together,  as  if  all  were  equally  near  or 


LETTER    III.      ,  21 

equally  far  off  from  primitive  truth  and  order.  That  would 
be  not  only  unjust  but  ungenerous  and  unchristian  to  a  high 
degree.  The  truth  is,  that  some  of  these  many  denomina- 
tions are  very  near  the  truth,  as  held  by  the  early  Church  ; 
very  many  are  heretical  in  several  points ;  and  some  are  sunk 
in  the  grossest  and  vilest  heresies  and  denials  of  the  faith  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  For  some  of  the  manifold  denomi- 
nations about  us,  I  have,  then,  great  respect ;  for  others,  none 
whatever. 

Let  us  arrange  them  thus,  if  you  will :  1st,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church ;  2d,  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  ;  and 
3d,  the  numerous  Protestant  sects  or  denominations.  There  ' 
are  a  few  principles  by  which  the  Church,  of  Rome  is  very 
plainly  distinguished  from  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  a  few 
others  by  which  the  Episcopal  Church  is  distinguished  from 
Rome  and  from  all  the  Protestant  denominations.  This  at- 
titude of  our  Church  is  expressed  in  the  name  she  has 
adopted  to  suit  the  state  of  things  in  our  country.  As  Prot- 
estant, she  is  widely  removed  from  Rome  ;  as  Episcopal,  she 
differs  essentially  from  all  the  societies  with  which  you  are  ac- 
quainted. 

I  do  not  find  that  you,  or  those  persons  generally  among 
whom  my  duty  calls  me,  are  much  embarrassed  by  the  claims 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  ;  so  that  I  need  not  dwell  long  upon 
them.  I  will,  however,  suggest  a  few  reasons  why  we  may 
suffer  her  pretensions  to  pass,  for  the  present  at  least,  un- 
noticed, 

1.  She  is  the  Roman  or  Latin  Church.  Let  Romans 
listen  to  her  if  they  will.     She  is  their  mother,  but  none  of 


22  LETTERIII. 

ours  ;  and  though  she  boasts  that  she  is  the  Catholic  Church, 
she  has  no  more  claim  on  us  than  the  Greek  Church  or  the 
Nestorian.  '  ' 

2.  She  does  not,  to  say  the  least,  encourage  the  reading 
or  studying  of  the  Bible,  and  so  justly  incurs  the  suspicion 
that  her  teachings  are  not  conformed  to  it.  It  is  all  right 
for  a  Judge  to  say,  "  Gentlemen  of  the  Jury — in  deciding 
what  this  statute  means,  pray  give  attention  to  what  I  say, 
and  mark  well  these  decisions  and  authorities  ;"  but  I  should 
much  suspect  that  Judge  who  should  forbid  the  Jury  to  take 
the  law  with  them,  and  look  at  it  for  themselves. 

3.  She  requires  me  to  discredit  the  evidence  of  my  eyes, 
my  ears,  my  taste  and  smell,  whereas  Christ  has  expressly 
authorized  me  to  trust  my  senses.  Said  he  to  the  doubting 
disciples,  "  Handle  me,  and  see  that  it  is  I  myself."  If  han- 
dUng  Christ's  body  proved  it  to  be  his  body,  the  same  evidence 
proves  that  a  piece  of  consecrated  bread  is  not  his  body. 

4.  Her  religious  system  does  not  accord  with  the  general 
strain  and  purport  of  Scripture,  of  which  at  least  we  are 
competent  judges. 

5.  Poverty,  ignorance,  and  degradation,  such  as  prevail  in 
Italy  and  Spain,  where  Rome  has  had  uninterrupted  sway  for 
centuries,  cannot  result  from  that  pure  form  of  godliness 
which  has  the  promise  of  the  life  which  now  is,  as  well  as  of 
that  which  is  to  come. 

Passing  by  these  claims,  then,  let  us  contrast  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  with  the  Presbyterians,  Methodists, 
Baptists,  and  other  denominations,  and  see  why  she  has  the 
first  claim  on  your  reverence.     I  shall  endeavor  to  do  this 


LETTER    III.  •     23 

with  entire  courtesy,  and  with  unaffected  good  will  to  the 
persons  of  those  whose  opinions  I  deem,  however  sound  in 
some  things,  to  be  wide  of  the  truth  in  others. 

Now,  as  you  are  not  a  Roman,  or  a  Greek  by  nation,  but 
an  Anglo-Saxon,  let  us  ask.  Where  is  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
Church? 

The  Church  of  England  alone  claims  to  have  preserved 
an  unbroken  constitution  from  the  days  of  the  Apostles  down 
to  the  present  hour.  The  birth-day  of  all  these  other  societies 
is  fresh  in  the  memory  of  man.  Not  one  of  them  pretends  to 
be  the  mother  who  nourished  and  brought  up  for  ages  upon 
ages  successive  generations  of  Englishmen.   . 

The  Church  of  England  was  founded,  some  say,  by  St. 
Paul  himself;  certainly  by  apostolic  men.  It  has  never 
changed  its  constitution  ;  it  has  never  died  out  ;  it  has  never 
lost  its  name  and  place  in  England.  And  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  this  country  is  a  shoot  planted  here  by 
her  hands,  to  take  care  of  her  children  who  crossed  the 
mighty  deep. 

It  is  true  that,  for  a  season,  she  was  forced,  not  without 
earnest  remonstrance,  into  submission  to  the  Pope,  and,  in 
common  with  the  rest  of  the  Church,  soiled  her  white  robes  ; 
but  it  is  equally  true  that  in  God's  good  time  she  was  led  to 
renounce  the  Pope,  and  she  washed  her  vestments  in  the  pure 
waters  of  truth.  She  was  sick  awhile,  but  never  died.  Sam- 
son slumbered,  and  the  Philistines  bound  him,  and  sported 
with  him  ;  but  he  was  Samson  yet  ;  and  when  his  locks  grew 
out  again,  he  possessed  all  his  former  might.  The  Church  of 
England  is  now,  in  form  and  constitution,  what  she  always 


24  LETTER    III. 

was.  She  has  been  reformed,  but  never  revolutionized  ;  she 
has  cast  off  Romish  corruptions  and  errors,  but  has  never  lost 
her  essential  connection  with  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  ; 
and  her  authority  has  been  handed  down,  in  regular  order, 
from  the  very  earliest  days,  without  any  break  or  violation  of 
her  essential  and  constituent  principles.  If,  indeed,  the 
"  old  is  better,"  why  leave  that  which  has  been  the  Church 
of  youi'  fathers,  for  sixty  generations  it  may  be,  to  try  a  new 
society  ?  ■        ' 

The  Providence  then  which  caused  us  to  be  bom  of  an 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  does  also  invest  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church 
with  the  character  and  rights  of  our  natural  Guardian  ;  and 
unless  she  has  done  something  to  forfeit  that  claim,  we  need 
go  no  further,  but  here  stop  and  offer  up  our  sacrifice. 

I  acknowledge,  however,  that  if  our  mother  Church  be- 
comes in  name  a  Church,  but  in  fact  a  synagogue  of  Satan, 
then  a  man's  situation  is  one  of  serious  embarrassment ;  and 
a  Church  which  bears  the  symbols  of  authority,  and  has  na- 
tural claims  upon  us,  can  no  longer  be  confided  in,  when  she 
either 

1.  Throws  the  Scriptures  aside  ; 

2.  Ceases,  in  her  teachings,  to  breathe  the  spirit  of  the 
Gospel  ;  . 

3.  Fails  to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  piety; 

4.  Abridges  the  true  liberty  of  her  children  ;  or 

5.  Imposes  unlawful  or  unreasonable  terms  of  communion. 
Let  us  examine  these  several  points. 

1.  Is  ours  a  Scripture-loving  Church  ? 

Church  articles  have  been  well  compared  to  bank  notes  ; 


LETTER    III.  25 

they  are  perfectly  good  so  long  as  she  pays  cash  on  demand.' 
Now,  w-hile  the  Church  of  Rome  expects  her  notes  to  pass 
upon  her  sole  credit,  our  Church  is  always  ready  with  the 
pure  gold.  Listen  to  her  doctrine  ;  "  Holy  Scripture  con- 
taineth  all  things  necessary  to  salvation  ;  so  that  whatsoever 
is  not  read  therein,  nxjr  may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to  be 
required  of  any  man  that  it  should  be  believed  as  an  article 
of  the  Faith."  When  a  priest  is  ordained,  he  must  answer  aye 
to  this  question  :  "  Are  you  persuaded  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures contain  all  doctrine  required  as  necessary  for  eternal 
salvation,  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  ?  And  are  you  de- 
termined out  of  the  said  Scriptures  to  instruct  the  people 
committed  to  your  charge,  and  to  teach  nothing  as  necessary 
to  eternal  salvation  but  that  which  you  are  persuaded  may 
be  concluded  and  proved  by  the  Scripture  ?" 

Moreover,  so  much  love  has  the  Church  for  the  Bible, 
and  so  much  confidence  in  the  power  of  the  Divine  Word, 
that  none  of  us,  not  even  a  Bishop,  can  preach  upon  a  Sun- 
day morning  without  there  being  read,  first  of  all,  several  of 
the  Psalms,  two  full  chapters,  one  from  either  Testament,  and 
a  portion  of  one  of  the  Epistles  and  of  one  of  the  Gospels.  In 
fine,  she  uses  every  means  to  acquaint  the  people  with  the 
Bible,  and  distinctly  avows  her  willingness  for  all  her  teach- 
ings to  be  tried  by  it. 

2.  Does  she  carry  out  the  Gospel  in  her  Teachings  ? 

Just  listen  to  that  service.  Adam  Clarke,  the  Methodist, 
said  that  the  Prayer-Book  was,  next  to  the  Bible,  "  the 
book  of  his  understanding  and  of  his  heart."     I  could  quote 

numerous  such  testimonies.     Take  that  Prayer-Book,  and 

2 


26  *  LETTER    III, 

show  me  the  sentence  which  will  not  stand  the  three  great 
tests  of  Gospel  truth  :  viz.,  does  it  humble  the  sinner  ?  exalt 
the  Saviour  ?  promote  holiness  ?  Is  not  the  service  full  of 
heart  religion  ?  "0  God,  make  clean  our  hearts  within  us." 
"  Create  and  make  in  us  new  and  contrite  hearts."  "  May  it 
please  thee  to  give  us  true  repentance  ;  to  forgive  us  all  our 
sins,  negligences,  and  ignorances,  and  to  endue  us  with  the 
grace  of  thy  Holy  Spirit,  to  amend  our  lives  according  to  thy 
holy  laws."  The  Prayer-Book  is  full  of  Christ ;  everywhere 
it  says  to  sinners,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh 
away  the  sins  of  the  world." 

3.  Has  the  Church  brought  forth  the  Fruits  of  Piety  ? 

Mr.  Barnes,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  shall  answer  this 
question  for  us.     I  quote  his  words  : — 

"  We  remember  the  name  of  Cranmer — Cranmer,  first  in 
many  respects  among  the  reformers  ;  that  it  was  by  his  steady 
and  unerring  hand,  that,  under  God,  the  pure  Church  of 
the  Saviour  was  conducted  through  the  agitating  and  dis- 
tressing times  of  Henry  VIII.  "We  remember  that  God 
watched  over  that  wonderful  man  ;  that  he  gave  this  distin- 
guished prelate  access  to  the  heart  of  one  of  the  most  capri- 
cious, cruel,  inexorable,  bloodthirsty,  licentious  monarchs  that 
has  disgraced  the  world  ;  that  God,  for  the  sake  of  Cranmer, 
and  his  Church,  conducted  Henry,  as  '  by  a  hook  in  the 
nose,'  and  made  him  faithful  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, when  faithful  to  none  else  ;  so  that,  perhaps,  the  only 
redeeming  trait  in  the  character  of  Henry,  is  his  fidelity  to 
this  first  British  prelate  under  the  Reformation.  The  world 
will  not  soon  forget  the  names  of  Latimer,  and  Ridley,  and 


LETTER    III.  27 

Rogers,  and  Bradford  ;  names  associated  in  the  feelings  of 
Christians  with  the  long  list  of  ancient  confessors,  '  of  whom 
the  world  was  not  worthy,'  and  who  did  honor  to  entire  ages 
of  mankind,  by  sealing  their  attachment  to  the  Son  of  God 
on  the  rack,  or  amid  the  flames. 

,  "  Nor  can  we  forget  that  we  owe  to  episcopacy,  that  which 
fills  our  minds  with  gratitude  and  praise,  when  we  look  for 
examples  of  consecrated  talent,  and  elegant  literature,  and 
humble  devoted  piety.  While  men  honor  elevated  Christian 
feeling  ;  while  they  revere  sound  learning  ;  while  they  render 
tribute  to  clear  and  profound  reasoning,  they  will  not  forget 
the  names  of  Barrow  and  Taylor,  of  Tillotson,  and  Hooker, 
and  Butler  ;  and  when  they  think  of  humble,  pure,  sweet, 
heavenly  piety,  their  minds  will  recur  instantly  to  the  name 
of  Leighton.  Such  names,  with  a  host  of  others,  do  honor  to 
the  world.  "When  we  think  of  them,  we  have  it  not  in  bur 
hearts  to  utter  one  word  against  a  Church  which  has  thus 
done  honor  to  our  race,  and  to  our  common  Christianity. 
!(;***  yIq  have  never  doubted  that  many  of  the 
purest  flames  of  devotion  that  rise  from  the  earth,  ascend 
from  the  altars  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  that  many  of 
the  purest  spirits  that  the  earth  contains,  minister  at  those 
altars,  or  breathe  forth  their  prayers  and  praises  in  language 
consecrated  by  the  use  of  piety  for  centuries." 

4.  Does  the  Church  protect  the  Rights  of  her  Children? 

In  this  respect  she  is  far  more  careful  than  any  religigus 
society  known  to  you.  In  the  parish,  the  vestry  (elected 
every  year  by  the  people)  have  entire  control  in  all  that  re- 
lates to  the  property  of  the  Church  and  the  affairs  of  the 


28  LETTERIIl. 

congregation.  The  people  thus  elect  their  own  minister. 
They  can  appeal  from  bis  decision  to  the  Bishop  in  cases  of 
difficulty.  In  making  laws  and  in  electing  officers,  the  peo- 
ple, by  their  chosen  representatives  from  the  various  parishes, 
have  exactly  the  same  voice  as  the  ministry  ;  and  that,  in 
the  State  Conventions,  and  in  the  General  Convention  of  the 
whole  Church.  In  these  bodies  private  Christians  are  often 
the  most  influential  men  ;  and  without  the  concurrence  of  the 
laity,  all  the  Bishops,  and  all  the  Clergy  together,  cannot 
pass  any  measure. 

5.  Is  the  Church  Liberal,  or  has  she  imposed  Unreason- 
able terms  of  Communion  ? 

Listen  to  her  own  language  :  "  What  is  required  of  those 
who  come  to  the  Lord's  Supper  ?  To  examine  themselves 
whether  they  repent  them  truly  of  their  former  sins,  stead- 
fastly purposing  to  lead  a  new  life  ;  have  a  lively  faith  in 
God's  mercy  through  Christ,  with  a  thankful  remembrance 
of  his  death,  and  be  in  charity  with  all  men."  Again  : 
"  Dearly  Beloved,  on  Sunday  next  I  purpose,  through  God's 
assistance,  to  administer  to  all  such  as  shall  be  religiously 
and  devoutly  disposed,  the  most  comfortable  Sacrament  of 
tbe  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ ;"  &c.  And  agam  :  "Ye 
who  truly  and  earnestly  repent  you  of  your  sins,  and  are  in 
love  and  charity  with  your  neighbors,  and  intend  to  lead  a 
new  life,  following  the  commandments  of  God,  and  walking 
from  henceforth  in  his  holy  ways,  draw  near  with  faith,"  &c. 

Is  any  truly  converted  man  excluded  here  ?  any  sincerely 
pious  man  refused  a  participation  in  the  holy  Sacrament  ? 

Suppose  now  you  are  persuaded  that  you  are  a  poor 


LETTER    III.  29 

simier,  with  no  hope  but  in  the  mercy  of  Christ,  and  desire  to 
give  yourself  up  to  him  in  baptism.  You  wish  to  know  what 
will  satisfy  me  in  point  of  doctrine.  You  suppose,  probably, 
that  I  would  ask  you  whether  you  believe  all  that  is  in  the 
Prayer-Book  ;  what  your  notions  are  about  election,  free- 
agency,  and  such  deep  matters.  But  I  am  not  at  liberty  to 
do  any  thing  of  the  kind.  "  Dost  thou  believe  the  articles 
of  the  Christian  Faith,  as  contained  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  ?" 
This  is  the  question  to  which  you  must  answer.  You  have 
seen  before  that  this  Creed  is  a  summary  of  the  chief  truths 
of  the  Gospel,  used  in  the  Church  from  the  earliest  days.  If 
you  believe  thus  much,  and  come  forward  with  a  simple  trust 
in  Christ,  you  are  at  once  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  the 
Church,  and  she  will  teach  you  day  by  day  all  else  you  ought 
to  know. 

Let  us  dwell  upon  this  for  a  moment,  and  we  may  see 
why  it  is,  that  our  Church  occupies  the  ground  on  which  all 
must  stand  when  our  present  divisions  cease.  Our  Saviour 
knew  that  men  would  differ  much  in  their  opinions.  We 
see  that  this  difference  happened  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  Church.  But  men  need  not  part  because  they  differ.  So 
our  Saviour  said,  "  Baptize  all  nations  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost."  He  made  belief  in  the  doc- 
trine of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  the  only  condition 
(conversion,  being,  of  course,  supposed,)  of  baptism.  The 
early  Church  set  out  this  doctrine  in  the  Creed,  and  said  aU 
men  may  come  in  who  believe  thus  much.  But  now  the 
Church  of  Rome  says,  this  will  not  suffice  ;  you  must  avow 
your  faith  in  Transubstantiation,  for  instance.     Our  friends 


30         ^  LETTERIII. 

of  various  names  require  you  to  acknowledge  your  faith  in 
Calvinism,  in  Immersion,  or  in  some  peculiar  set  of  opinions. 
Now,  if  we  ever  are  to  get  together  again,  it  must  be  by 
giving  up  all  these  and  similar  tests,  allowing  liberty  of  opin- 
ion about  them,  and  allowing  all  to  embrace  the  privileges  of 
the  Church  who  hold  the  fundamental  truths  of  the  Gospel, 
as  set  forth  in  the  Creed. 

Let  me  in  this  connection  call  your  attention  to  the  star 
bility  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

It  is  a  very  remarkable  fact  that  this  Church  has  never 
been  divided,  either  in  England  or  in  this  country.  Our 
other  friends  divide  on  questions  of  expediency  and  of  pol- 
itics, as  well  as  of  religion.  They  even  dig  a  deep  trench  all 
along  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  Episcopalians,  however,  re- 
gard that  man  as  a  traitor  and  an  enemy  who  would  attempt 
to  rend  the  Church  in  twain.  Is  it  a  mere  chance,  that 
while  one  religious  body  after  another  has  been  convulsed 
and  rent  asunder,  threatening  even  the  perpetuity  of  the  so- 
cial compact,  this  Church,  notwithstanding  differences  of 
opinion  within  her  pale,  is  quiet  and  at  rest,  upon  the  great 
and  essential  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  ?  Is  it  an  accident, 
that  while  every  other  society,  within  a  brief  period,  has  been 
split  into  fragments,  this  Church  preserves  her  integrity,  and 
presents  from  age  to  age  an  unbroken  and  unshaken  front  to 
the  hosts  of  Satan  ? 

Now,  my  good  friend,  I  have  set  before  you  a  venerable 
Apostolic  Church  :  the  Church  of  your  fathers,  and  of  your 
race,  from  which  the  sects  have  from  time  to  time  severed 
themselves.     A  Church  that  loves  the  Bible,  reads  more  of 


LETTER    III.  81 

it  at  one  service  than  our  other  friends  do  in  six,  and  that 
authorizes  you  to  try  all  her  teachings  by  Scripture.  A 
steadfast  Church,  that  holds  together,  and  whose  constant 
aim  is  to  cultivate  love  and  brotherly  kindness  when  the 
fiercest  passions  are  raging  around  her  ;  and  that  never  has 
been  split.  A  Church  that  utters  no  other  language  than 
the  earnest,  gentle,  soul-subduing  language  of  the  Grospel; 
that  offers  the  privilege  of  her  courts  to  all  humble-minded 
believers  without  any  exacting  demands  about  deep  and  dis- 
puted points.  A  Church  that  has  been  adorned  with  Martyrs 
and  Saints  whose  praise  is  known  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  A 
Church  that  is  so  arranged  in  its  government  as  most  care- 
fully to  guard  her  children  from  oppression.  Is  hot  she  the 
Mother  whom  you  seek  ?  May  you  not  with  safety  nestle  by 
her  altar,  and  rear  your  young  children  in  her  courts  ?  I  do 
not  abuse  those  who  differ  from  me,  and  love  new  things,  but 
while  I  live  will  I  maintain,  The  old  is  better. 


LETTEK  IV. 

My  Dear  Friend,  _ 

Supposing  that  your  mind  is  at  rest  upon  the  subjects  thus 
far  discussed,  another  difficulty  is  in  your  way.  You  say 
that  you  see  no  prospect  of  being  able  to  come  into  the 
Church,  because  you  have  tried  most  honestly,  and  so  far 
with  no  success  whatever,  to  get  through  *^  Your  case  is  not 
peculiar  :  I  find  very  many  persons  who  agree  in  saying,  that 
they  are  anxious  to  be  Christians  ;  that  they  have  attended 
on  many  "  revivals,"  were  the  very  first  to  go  up  to  be 
prayed  for,  saw  others  converted  by  their  side,  but  failed  to 
obtain  a  hope. 

I  must  here  profess  my  solemn  and  abiding  conviction  of 
the  truth,  that  "  except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little 
children,  ye  can  in  no  wise  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
And  by  conversion  I  understand,  not  a  mere  improvement 
in  morals,  not  a  mere  outward  conformity  to  the  duties  of 
religion,   but  a  decided  change   of  heart,  life  and  character, 

*  This  expression  is  peculiai"  to  the  south  and  southwest,  amongst 
those  who  favor  what  ai'e  popularly  known  as  "  revivals."  It  is  equiva- 
lent to  what  is  meant  by  getting  religion,  sudden,  instantaneous  conver- 
sion, or  the  like,  in  other  sections  of  oui'  countiy. 


LETTER    IV.  83 

effected  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  under  the  infiuence  of  divine  truth 
and  Gospel  ordinances.  Whenever  I  deny,  forget,  conceal, 
or  disparage  this  great  doctrine  ;  whenever  I  cease  to  assert 
its  necessity  with  zeal  and  distinctness ;  then  may  the  Lord 
in  mercy  to  his  people  make  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of 
my  mouth.  But  as  for  this  phrase  which  is  now  in  every 
body's  mouth,  in  these  parts,  and  the  thing  intended  by  it,  I 
do  enter  my  most  earnest  protest  against  them,  and  main- 
tain that  they  are  productive  of  the  most  serious  and  lasting 
evils. 

I  protest  against  the  phrase  because  it  is  unscriptural  ; 
not  one  such  expression  is  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the 
Bible  ;  because  it  is  indefinite.  "  Father,"  said  a  little  boy 
to  a  friend  of  mine,  "  what  is  it  that  they  get  through  ?"  and 
who  shall  answer  the  child's  question  ?  because  it  is  unbe- 
coming and  inconsistent  with  the  respect  we  owe  to  holy 
things  :  how  intolerable  t^  describe  a  man's  rescue  from  death 
to  life  as  getting  through  ! 

Nor  is  the  idea  intended  to  be  conveyed  less  false,  un- 
scriptural, and  dishonorable  to  God.  The  process  intended 
is  just  this  :  a  man  awakened  to  the  importance  of  religion, 
must  come  forward  before  a  large  audience,  and  kneel  or  sit 
in  a  conspicuous  place  ;  the  good  people  gather  around  him, 
-some  exhort,  some  pray,  some  sing.  He  is  now  a  mourner, 
and  if  all  is  right,  presently  becomes  very  miserable  :  his 
friends  now  redouble  their  efforts  :  Don't  you  see  a  ray  of 
light  ?  don't  you  feel  better  ?  they  inquire.  After  a  certain 
lapse  of  time,  if  all  goes  well,  the  mourner  begins  to  take 

comfort  ;  he  experiences  the  natural  relief  of  tears,  his  heart 

2* 


34  LETTEE    IV. 

feels  lighter  ;  he  rises  to  his  feet  aud  gives  glory  to  God,  and 
then  he  is  said  to  have  gotten  religion,  or  to  have  got  through  ! 
Is  not  this  a  fair  picture  of  what  commonly  obtains  in  our 
country  ?  and  can  any  mark  or  trace  of  such  a  process  be 
found  in  the  Bible,  or  in  the  early  Church  ? 

There  is  here  no  serious  deliberate  choice  ;  for  many  who 
have  gone  through  this  process  assure  me  that  reflection  was 
impossible  :  there  are  here  no  deliberate  resolutions  against 
special  sins,  no  opportunity  to  repair  injuries,  to  become  re- 
conciled to  enemies,  and  to  do  such  other  acts  as  are  abso- 
lutely essential  before  a  man  has  a  right  to  consider  himself 
pardoned.  Bodily  exercise  is  the  most  striking  feature  of 
the  whole  proceeding  ;  the  man  seems  to  be  endeavoring, 
with  the  assistance  of  others,  to  carry  himself  through  a 
certain  set  of  feelings,  and  to  reach  in  the  end  a  certain  de- 
gree of  joy  and  gladness. 

This  system  hides  Christ  ;  foB  a  man  loses  sight  of 
Christ  whenever  he  trusts  in  anything  of  his  own  ;  and  if  a 
man  thinks  he  has  to  appease  God,  he  had  as  well  do  so  by 
prayers,  fastings,  alms,  and  stripes,  as  by  prayers,  groans, 
sighs,  and  lamentable  exclamations. 

A  friend  once  asked  me  to  converse  with  a  servant  who 
was  in  great  trouble.  He  was  very  honest  and  upright,  and 
for  two  years  seemed  to  be  absorbed  in  prayer  all  the  time. 
I  said  to  him  after  a  little,  "  I  think  I  can  explain  what  you 
consider  to  be  the  way  of  being  saved.  You  know  you  are 
a  great  sinner,  and  deserve  to  meet  the  wrath  of  God,  and 
that  he  is  now  angry  with  you  ;  but  if  you  try  to  mend  your 
ways  and  to  do  right,  and  keep  on  praying  and  striving,  after 


LETTER    IV.  85 

a  while  God  will  say,  This  is  a  sinner  indeed,  but  then  he  is 
so  sorry  and  so  troubled,  and  tries  so  hard  to  do  right,  that 
it  will  not  do  for  me  to  stay  angry  with  him."  The  poor 
fellow's  eyes  sparkled  as  he  said,  "  That  is  just  what.  I  am 
looking  for  ;  and  when  the  Lord  sees  that  is  the  way  with 
me,  he  will  let  me  through."  .  Are  these  notions  peculiar  to 
the  ignorant  ?  are  they  not  commonly  entertained  ?  And  yet 
there  is  no  Christ  here  :  the  sinner  pleads  his  own  case,  and 
succeeds  by  his  own  efforts. 

The  consequences  of  this  system  are  as  bad  as  its  theory. 
Of  these  converts,  it  is  notorious  that  a  large  proportion 
soon  sink  into  the  mire  ;  and  others  remain  in  the  society  to 
which  they  have  attached  themselves,  while  hypocrisy  is  at- 
tributed to  them  by  the  world.  Some,  indeed  many,  are 
sincere  and  do  well,  not  because  they  got  through  ;  that  was 
a  disadvantage  ;  but  because  they  were  led,  by  God's  Spirit, 
to  make  in  secret  that  serious,  deliberate  surrender  of  them- 
selves to  Christ,  in  which  consists  the  reality  of  religion. 

As  a  man  put  in  charge  of  the  Gospel,  and  deeply  real- 
izing the  strict  account  I  must  render  to  the  Judge  of  quick 
and  dead,  I  earnestly  advise  you  not  to  get  through  ;  not 
to  fall  in  for  one  moment  with  these  human  inventions,  but 
to  be  converted  in  the  scriptural  sense  of  that  word. 

In  order  to  bring  out  this  matter,  I  will  ask  you  to  con- 
sider three  things,  -  . 

1.  What  is  it  that  hinders  a  sinner  from  being  at  peace 
with  God? 

2.  What  must  he  do  to  overcome  that  hindrance,  and  so 
to  be  at  peace  with  him  ? 


86  LETTER    IV. 

3.  How  shall  lie  kuow  that  his  peace  is  made  with  God  ? 

These  questions  comprehend  the  whole  matter. 

1.  Now,  as  to  the  first,  there  was  once  a  fearful  difficulty. 
Man  was  guilty;  the  law  demanded  his  life;  and  God  was 
angry  with  him.  But  look  you  ;  Christ  has  come  to  stand 
in  our  place.  He  has  atoned  for  our  sin,  suffered  death  in 
our  stead,  fulfilled  and  satisfied  the  law,  and  reconciled  God 
to  the  whole  world.  If  this  were  all,  there  would  be  no 
more  to  do  ;  for  God  has  not  now  to  be  appeased  ;  no  new 
sacrifice  is  demanded  ;  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  unwillingness 
on  the  part  of  God  to  be  at  peace  with  us  all. 

Where  is  the  difficulty  then  ?  We  answer,  in  the  shiner's 
will.  The  trouble  is,  not  that  he  has  done  wrong,  but  that 
he  justifies  his  wrong,  and  intends  to  renew  it  ;  that  he 
despises  mercy,  and  asks  for  justice  ;  that  he  hates  the  Judge 
and  Law,  will  not  accept  a  pardon,  and,  even  were  he  par- 
doned, would  go  forth  only  to  incur  a  greater  condemnation. 
Now,  as  Christ,  by  his  death,  removed  every  difficulty  that 
existed  on  the  part  of  God,  so  the  Holy  Spirit  comes  to  re- 
move those  which  are  entirely  our  own.  And  if  we  can  only 
be  so  persuaded  of  our  guilt  and  danger,  and  of  God's  good- 
will in  Christ,  that  we  will  agree  to  accept  pardon  upon  his 
terms  and  to  do  his  will,  the  controversy  is  at  an  end,  and 
we  are  reconciled  to  God.  But  this  we  would  never  be  dis- 
posed to  do,  without  the  Spmt  working  in  us  and  with  us 
from  first  to  last. 

2.  What,  then,  must  a  sinner  do,  in  order  to  make  his 
peace  with  God  ? 

In  a  word,  I  would  answer  that  he  must  accept  freely  the 


LETTER    IV.  37 

offer  of  mercy  made  to  him  in  Christ,  embracing  its  provisions, 
and  acceding  to  its  conditions. 

He  must  acknowledge  the  guilt  of  whicli  he  stands 
charged,  and  sincerely  deplore  it  and  repent  of  it.  He  must 
own  his  weakness,  and,  with  humble  prayers  for  help,  set 
himself  to  amend  his  life.  He  must  accept  Christ  as  his 
only  and  all-sufficient  Saviour,  and  plead  nothing  save  his 
merits  as  a  reason  why  he  should  be  spared  punishment.  He 
must  profess  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  make  to  him  a  solemn 
vow  of  love  and  service  in  th^  sacrament  of  Baptism,  which 
is,  besides,  a  means  of  imparting  heavenly  grace  to  his  soul, 
and  the  appointed  ordinance  in  which  God  pronounces  his 
sins  forgiven.  In  other  words,  religion  consists  not  in  emo- 
tion or  excitement,  however  these  may  attend  upon  it  ;  but 
it  is,  in  the  main,  a  choice- — a  solemn,  grave,  and  deliberate 
choice — of  mercy  as  our  portion,  and  God's  favor  as  alone 
able  to  make  us  happy.  It  is  a  change  of  views,  affections, 
hopes,  purposes,  and  desires.  ,  ,      - 

If  you  will  take  the  pains  to  examine  the  different  in- 
stances of  conversion  recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  you 
will  find  they  all  agree  in  this.  Faith,  an  honest  acceptance 
of  Christ,  preceded  and .  accompanied  by  godly  sorrow,  and 
issuing  in  a  religious  profession  and  a  holy  life,  is  the  great 
condition  ever  insisted  on.  Thus  we  find  Paul  suddenly  ar- 
rested ;  for  conviction  is  often  sudden,  and  this  was  a  miracle 
besides.  First,  arrested  ;  secondly,  inquiring  Who  art  thou,  ' 
Lord  ?  and  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  thirdly,  sorrowing 
for  sin,  for  he  was  three  days  blind  and  fasting  ;  and 
fourthly,  he  gives  himself  to  Christ,  and  washes  away  his 


38  LETTERIV. 

sins  in  holy  Baptism.  Not  one  word  is  here  about  exhila- 
ration or  any  getting  through,  but  all  is  calm,  deliberate,  and 
serious. 

Look  at  the  case  of  the  Ethiopian  :  1st,  inquiring  the 
way  of  safety  ;  2d,  hearing  of  Christ  crucified  ;  3d,  desiring 
to  accept  him  as  his  Saviour  ;  and  4th,  baptized  by  Philip. 
What  doth  hinder  me  to  be  baptized  ?  said  he.  Philip  does 
not  ask,  in  reply.  Whether  he  "felt  comfortable,"  or  "was 
happy."  If  thou  believest  with  all  thine  heart,  thou  mayest, 
was  his  answer  ;  and  that  answer  is  as  good  now  as  it  ever 
was. 

Look  at  Lydia  :  1st,  her  heart  is  opened,  and  she  attends 
to  the  preached  word  ;  2d,  she  beheves,  "  was  judged  faith- 
ful ;"  3d,  she  is  baptized  and  her  family  ;  4th,  she  begins  to 
work  for  Christ,  and  help  his  servants. 

From  all  this,  I  conclude  that  the  Bible  does  not  require 
any  extravagant  emotions  or  experience ;  but  requires,  chiefly, 
faith,  an  honest,  serious,  humble,  and  cheerful  acceptance  of 
the  offer  of  mercy  made  us  in  Christ. 

3.  The  third  inquiry  is,  what  is  the  evidence  of  conver- 
sion ?       • 

I  answer,  the  change  itself  is  a  witness.  There  is  all  the 
difference  in  the  world  between  a  dead  and  a  living  man. 
If  you  are  born  again,  you  may  know  it  by  the  spiritual  life 
imparted  to  you.  The  question  is,  in  my  view,  a  simple  one. 
You  are,  at  this  moment,  either  a  carnal  man  or  a  spiritual 
man ;  you  cannot  be  any  thing  between  these  characters.  If 
you  have  a  carnal  mind,  you  may  know  it  in  this  way  :  the 
carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God,  and  is  not  subject  to  his 


LETTER    IV.  39 

law  ;  and,  therefore,  if  you  set  up  your  will  against  God's, 
and  do  not  honestly  strive  to  keep  his  law,  you  are  carnal. 

On  the  contrary,  the  renewed  or  spiritual  mind  loves 
God,  and  makes  it  its  chief  study  to  please  him  ;  it  lives  for 
God,  and  its  affections  go  out  after  God.  If  this  be  your 
character,  you  are  not  under  the  curse. 

Again,  if  a  converted  man,  you  have  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  ;  not  that  he  talks  with  you  or  tells  you  in  words  that 
you  are  a  Christian.  How  does  God  witness  that  he  is  in 
the  world  ?  By  his  works — ^by  the  wisdom,  goodness,  power, 
and  over-ruling  providence  he  displays  and  exercises  all 
around  us.  And  thus  the  Spirit  bears  witness  within  us,  by 
the  fear  of  sin  he  cherishes  ;  the  grateful  thoughts  of  Christ 
he  gives  us ;  the  earnest  breathings  after  holiness  he  inspires ; 
the  strength,  which  we  dare  not  call  our  own,  and  which  we 
yet  feel  and  know  is  within  us,  by  which  we  are  enabled  to 
keep  down  sinful  thoughts,  to  curb  angry  passions,  to  do  and 
to  forbear,  for  Christ's  sake,  what  we  dislike  to  do  or  to 
forbear.  Thus  the  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirits  that  we  are  the  sons  of  God. 

I  know  how  hard  it  is  for  you  to  break  away  from  opin- 
ions so  generally  maintained  around  you.  But  if  I  have 
made  clear  my  points,  I  beg  you  to  dismiss  for  ever  this  idea 
of  getting  through  ;  of  manufacturing  a  glorious  experience 
wherewith  to  appease  God,  when  already  Christ  is  your 
peace.  And  if  you  have  these  marks  of  conversion,  a  godly 
sorrow  for  sin  with  a  determination  to  forsake  it  ;  a  willing- - 
ness  to  commit  a  lost  and  ruined  soul  into  the  hands  of 
Christ,  making  mention  of  his  righteousness  and  his  alone  ; 


40  LETTEEIV. 

a  strong  determination,  though  he  slay  you,  yet  you  will  trust 
in  him  and  keep  his  holy  commandments  ;  then  you  need 
no  longer  delay  to  seek  a  home  in  his  Church  ;  to  subscribe 
yourself  by  his  name,  to  avail  yourself  of  his  Holy  Sacra- 
ments, and  to  take  to  yourself  the  sweet  assurance,  "  Be  of 
good  comfort,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee." 

Thus,  my  dear  friend  and  brother,  have  I  tried  to  show 
you,  that  God  Is  not  unreasonable — that  there  is  a  plain 
path,  and  a  safe  guide  to  aid  you  if  you  will  return  to  him. 
If  you  will  be  honest  and  earnest,  you  will  find  good  in  this 
way.  May  God  enable  you  soon  to  come  to  a  decision,  to 
say  first  of  all,  "  As  for  me  and  my  house  we  will  serve  the 
Lord,"  and  then  to  say,  "  The  Church  of  the  Fathers  shall 
be  my  choice." 


LETTER  y. 

My  Dear  Friend, 

It  may  be,  that  by  this  time  you  are  satisfied  in  your 
own  mind,  that  it  is  high  time  for  you  to  act :  that  every 
consideration  of  duty  and  of  interest  does  earnestly  require 
of  you  to  take  a  decided  and  unequivocal  stand  upon  the 
side  of  God  and  of  his  Church. 

But  will  you  act  out  these  solemn  convictions  ?  Will 
your  present  inquiries  result  in  any  thing  ?  Or  will  you  act 
the  part  of  one,  who  examines  carefully  a  business  offer, 
ascertains  that  his  best  course  is  to  accede  to  it,  and  at  last 
gets  out  of  heart  when  the  writings  are  all  drawn  up,  and 
one  tells  him  now  sign  the  bond?  I  have  not  unfrequently 
seen  men  act  in  this  latter  way,  unwise  as  it  is  ;  and  I  should 
be  distressed  no  httle,  should  you  thus  waver,  and  leave  the 
great  question  unsettled.  Sometimes  a  man  is  held  back  by 
the  consciousness  that  he  lacks  honeaty  of  purpose.  If  he 
accepts  the  offers  of  the  Gospel,  it  must  be  Upon  the  terms 
of  the  Gospel.  If  he  takes  Christ  as  his  Master,  he  must 
first  renounce  all  that  is  unchristian.  He  feels  that  however 
he  may  acquiesce  in  the  general  plan  of  redemption,  and 
however  purposed  he  may  be  to  lead  what  is  called  a  religious 


42  LETTERV. 

life,  there  is  yet  some  one  practice-  or  habit  clearly  forbidden 
in  God's  law,  which  he  is  not  willing  to  abandon  :  some  one 
duty  plainly  enjoined,  which  he  is  not  willing  to  discharge — 
observe,  I  do  not  say  that  he  is  unctble,  but  that  he  is 
unwilling  to  do  and  to  forbear.  The  thing  disputed  may  be 
the  veriest  trifle  :  something  which  he  would  blush  to  own  : 
but  his  hesitancy  about  it  suffices  to  destroy  all  confidence  in 
his  own  sincerity,  and  forms  an  impenetrable  barrier  to  his 
further  progress.  Ah  !  how  we  do  see  men  stop,  and  talk, 
and  grumble  ;  pretending  this  trouble  and  that,  when  the 
secret  is  that  they  feel  they  are  not  honest:  they  know  in 
themselves  that  there  is  some  one  particular  in  which  they 
are  heeding  the  voice  of  inclination  rather  than  that  of  duty. 
The  time  would  fail  me  were  I  to  endeavor  to  show  how 
disingenuous  is  such  a  course — how  ungrateful  it  is  when 
Christ  gave  you  all,  and  shrank  from  no  paiu  or  sacrifice  for 
you,  that  you  should  begrudge  him  a  trifle — how  hopeless  it 
is  for  a  man  thus  to  dispute,  as  if  the  Great  God  was  to 
yield  to  him,  and  to  alter  that  unchangeable  condition  of 
pardon,  viz.,  obedience  and  submission,  prompt,  universal, 
and  without  exception.  The  man  who  comes  to  the  Sacra- 
ments without  this  purpose  of  keeping  all  the  commandments, 
does  but  utter  a  solemn  falsehood.  And  if  there  be  any  such 
difficulty  in  your  way,  you  must  first  of  all  pray  for  grace  to 
conquer  your  stubborn  will  in  this  particular.  So  that  you 
shall  count  it  a  privilege  to  take  the  thing  that  most  you 
love,  the  indulgence  that  most  you  cherish,  and  to  oflfer  it 
upon  the  altar  of  God,  as  a  poor  and  unworthy  acknowledg- 
ment of  bis  undeserved  goodness  and  mercy. 


LETTER    V.  43 

If,  however,  your  heart  does  not  thus  condemn  you,  and 
you  are  not  conscious  of  any  such  half-way  purpose,  you  may 
yet  have  difficulties.     Let  me  mention  two. 

First. — I  am  not  good  enough  to  come  into  the  Church. 

If  a  holy  character  acquired  were  the  condition  of  Church- 
membership,  I  cannot  imagine  where  any  members  could  be 
procured,  l^ever  yet  have  I  seen  any  who  thought  them- . 
selves  good  enough  to  be  in  the  Church,  save  those  whose 
conduct  sadly  evidenced  that  their  minds  were  unrenewed  ; 
and  if  we  could  find  any  who  had  this  holy  character,  they 
would  have  no  need  of  a  Church  ;  for  sound  men  need  no 
physic.  We  send  patients  to  a  hospital  because  they  are 
sick,  and  desire  to  get  well;  we  send  children  to  school  be- 
cause they  are  ignorant,  not  because  they  are  educated ;  and 
Christ  calls  poor  sinners  into  his  Church,  because  they  are 
sinners.  The  condition  is  not  that  they  are  holy,  but  that 
they  earnestly  desire  to  be  holy,  and  feel  their  need  of .  divine 
grace,  in  order  to  escape  the  dominion  of  sin. 

No  man  can  coi5ae  without  profanation  to  the  sacraments' 
of  our  blessed  religion,  who  is  willingly  indulging  himself  in 
any  known  transgression.  No  religious  convictions  are  gen- 
uine which  do  not  lead  a  man  to  contend  with  his  evil  nature, 
and  to  commence  in  earnest  the  work  of  reformation;  but  if 
one  must  be  assured  that  he  is  a  good  and  worthy  man  in  the 
sight  of  God  before  he  is  baptized,  confirmed,  or  approaches 
the  holy  table,  then  he  can  never  come.  You  will  say,  how- 
ever, that  the  Scripture  uses  very  strong  expressions  to 
denote  the  spiritual  change, — "  If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is 
a  new  creature;"  and  such  like.     Perhaps  «f  all  these  ex- 


44  LETTER    V. 

pressions,  none  is  more  formidable  than  tliat  which  represents 
the  Christian  as  being  "  born  again."  It  is  asked,  how  can 
I,  poor,  weak  creature  that  I  am,  come  forward  to  Baptism, 
and  hear  the  minister  tell  the  people  that  I  have  been  "  born 
again"  of  God's  holy  Spirit,  while  I  am  so  painfully  con- 
scious of  indwelling  sin  ? 

So  far  from  alarming  you,  this  comparison  of  the  spiritual 
to  the  natural  birth  ought  greatly  to  encourage  you.  What 
is  inan  when  first  born  into  this  material  world  ?  A  babe. 
He  has  life  indeed,  but  little  else;  he  is  feeble,  helpless,  de- 
pendent. He  can  neither  walk  about  nor  feed  himself;  and 
the  flame  of  life  burns  so  feebly,  that  a  rude  blast  would  at 
once  extinguish  it,  or  if  neglected,  it  would  flicker  and  die  of 
itself. 

For  this  helpless  being  God  provides  a  mother.  She 
protects,  and  clothes,  and  feeds  it.  Away  from  the  mother 
it  must  die.  God  might  sustain  its  life  by  other  means,  but 
in  the  usual  order  of  his  providence,  it  must  draw  strength 
from  its  mother's  breast. 

Now  here  is  a  little  sickly  babe ;  its  vitaUty  is  chiefly  ex- 
pressed by  signs  of  suffering  and  cries  of  want.  Shall  we  lay 
it  down  to  die  ?  Oh,  no.  A  healthy  child  might  bear  neg- 
lect for  a  brief  season;  but  as  for  this  one,  pity  demands  that 
we  seek  its  mother.  And,  mother !  guard  it  with  a  special 
care ;  keep  it  from  the  wintry  blast ;  give  it  the  support  it 
needs,  and  let  it  be  most  gently  dealt  with. 

And  are  we  to  be  born  full-grown  men  into  the  spiritual 
world,  and  to  begin  where  St.  Paul  left  off  ?  Are  we  to  be 
at  once  teachers,  examples,  giants  in  the  faith  ?    Is  there  no 


LEtTER    V.         ,  45 

nursing-mother  needed  for  us  ?  Think  of  it  then  in  this 
light  ; — we  can  be  born  again  only  as  bahes  in  Christ,  and 
the  Church  is  our  mother  appointed  to  train  us  up  to  man- 
hood. 

If  that  soul  of  yours  is  dead  indeed,  if  there  appear  no 
pulsation  of  a  heart  alive  with  penitence  and  faith,  no  breath 
of  prayer,  no  hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteousness,  it 
were  mockery  indeed  to  lay  it  on  the  mother's  breast.  The 
sacraments  are  worse  than  useless  to  a  man  unawakened  to  a 
sense  of  sin  and  misery. 

But  if  that  soul  be  ahve,  yet  feeble,^ — ^if  it  cry,  and  cry 
piteously  for  help — if  it  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness 
— oh,  cast  it  not  out  into  the  open  field  to  die.  Mother 
Church  opens  wide  her  arms,  and  is  anxious  to  feed  it  with 
her  word  and  sacraments  ;  to  keep  it  safe  within  her  sacred 
pale  ;  to  warm  it  with  her  prayers  ;  and  to  soothe  its  sor- 
rows with  the  comfortable  words  of  Christ.    , 

Our  goodness  is  not  the  qualification  God  has  laid  down 
for  admission  into  his  Church.  Our  sense  of  need — our  con- 
viction that  we  are  lost  without  Christ — our  desire  to  be 
pardoned — our  willingness  to  be  reformed — our  confidence  in 
the  power  and  love  of  God  in  and  through  Christ — these, 
and  these  alone,  are  God's  conditions.  I  am  to  notice,  how- 
ever, another  difficulty.  .    '  '  /  ■ 

Secondly. — You  distrust  your  ability  to  maintain  a 
Christian  walk  and  conversation. 

"I  am  willing  now,"  one  says,  "to  accept  God's  mercy 
upon  his  own  terms  ;  so  far  as  I  know  myself  I  think  I  want 
to  be  a  Christian.     But  then  I  may  be  mistaken  :  and  if  it 


46  LETTER    V. 

should  so  turn  out,  what  an  increased  guilt  and  responsibility 
I  will  have  incurred  !  what  a  scandal  to  the  Chui'ch  will  have 
been  sustained  !  Had  I  not  better  try  myself  a  while  longer, 
before  I  take  a  stand  from  which  I  can  retire  only  in  shame 
and  dishonor  ?" 

I  must  here  remind  you,  that  willingness  to  do  God's 
will  does  not  mean  ability  to  do  it.  Our  present  willingness 
is  something  which  we  may  find  out  by  prayerful  self-exami- 
nation— our  future  ability  is  altogether  contingent  upon  God's 
help  and  grace.  It  is  the  former  of  these  that  we  alone 
profess  in  Baptism — "  I  renounce  them  all,  and  will  endeavor 
by  God's  help  not  to  follow  nor  be  led  by  them" — is  the 
modest  promise  you  must  make  as  you  turn  away  from  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil.  And  more  than  this  no  man 
dares  promise  who  knows  aright  the  plague  of  his  heart,  and 
the  power  of  temptation. 

It  well  becomes  fallible  man  to  distrust  his  ovra.  heart,  by 
which  he  has  been  so  often  deceived.  But  when  we  have 
duly  weighed  the  whole  matter  :  when  we  have  earnestly 
sought  heavenly  direction  and  spiritual  aid,  and  conscience 
assures  us  that  we  are  not  trifling  with  God  or  endeavoring  to 
elude  his  just  demands,  then  have  we  all  the  evidence  of  our 
own  sincerity  we  can  ever  hope  to  have.  St.  Paul  tells  us 
that  he  "  knew  nothing  of  himself,"  that  is,  he  was  not  aware 
of  any  secret  dishonesty  towards  God — but  then  adds  with 
singular  modesty,  "  yet  am  I  not  hereby  justified  :  he  that 
judgeth  me  is  the  Lord  ;"  and  in  another  place,  "  we  trust 
we  have  a  good  conscience,  in  all  things  willing  to  live 
honestly."     May  the  time  never  come  when  you  shall  lay 


LETTER    V.  47 

claim  to  more  sincerity  than  this  blessed  apostle.  Remem- 
ber that  God  is  not  laying  traps  and  snares  for  us  ;  he  is  not 
seeking  excuses  to  condemn  us.  He  has  expressly  promised 
to  assist  our  endeavors  to  know  our  own  mind  and  purpose, 
and  authorizes  us  to  believe  that  if,  after  invoking  his  aid, 
our  conscience  affirms  that  we  are  honest,  we  may  safely  go 
on.  "  If  our  hearts  condemn  us  not,  then  have  we  confidence 
towards  God." 

The  reputation  and  sanctity  of  his  Church  is  dearer  to 
God  than  it  is  to  us  ;  I  may  add,  than  it  is  to  the  devil,  who 
so  often  strives  to  make  us  repress  our  religious  convictions, 
by  suggesting  to  us  that  in  avowing  our  faith  we  shall  do 
an  injury  to  the  cause  of  religion.  And  if  God  sees  fit 
to  invite  sinners  into  his  Church,  and  proposes  to  make 
use  of  such  poor  creatures  as  we,  I  see  not  how  we  can 
hang  back.  Let  us  do  our  duty,  and  Christ  who  loved  the 
Church  and  gave  himself  for  it,  will  evermore  protect  its 
interests. 

But  you  wish  to  try  yourself,  and  to  have  better  evidence 
of  your  ability  to  lead  a  godly  life — one  would  think  you  had 
tried  yourself  long  enough  already.  All  your  experience 
testifies  that  you  cannot  walk  uprightly  without  the  restraint 
of  a  religious  profession,  and  the  help  of  Gospel  ordinances. 
Our  Lord  testifies  the  same  thing  ;  for  if  men  could  do  well 
without  a  Church,  he  would  have  never  established  and 
perpetuated  such  an  institution.  You  may  try  yourself  to 
the  end  of  all  time,  and  the  result  will  be  still  the  same. 
You  cannot  unassisted  live  up  even  to  your  own  very  defect- 
ive and  inadequate  standard  of  Christian  duty. 


48  LETTER    V. 

But  suppose  it  otherwise :  suppose  that  for  the  six  months 
next  ensuing  you  satisfy  yourself,  and  maintain  a  Christian 
temper,  what  would  then  be  your  great  reliance,  your  ground 
of  confidence,  in  promising  to  keep  God's  law  ?  Would  it 
be  the  promise  of  his  grace,  or  would  it  be  your  own  in- 
tegrity ? 

Suffer  me  to  show  by  illustration,  what  is  the  spirit  in 
which  every  one  should  come  to  the  ordinances  and  sacra- 
ments of  religion. 

I  would  instance  the  case  of  an  undutiful  child,  who  has 
despised  his  father's  authority,  and  pained  a  mother's  heart. 
He  has  left  his  home,  and  pleased  with  the  idea  of  inde- 
pendence, flushed  with  the  hope  of  gain,  has  sought  that  land 
of  California,  whose  glittering  treasures  have  attracted  so 
many  eyes.  His  associations  there  are  low  and  debasing, 
and  he  daily  feels  the  contamination  of  the  evil  natures 
around  him — ^he  experiences  disappointment  too — the  gold 
eludes  his  search — sickness  lays  hold  upon  him,  and  grim 
famine  seems  to  await  him.  Now  conscience  reproaches  him 
for  his  unfilial  conduct,  and  the  memory  of  happier  days 
stealing  upon  his  soul  embitters,  by  the  contrast,  the  miseries 
of  the  scene  around  him. 

In  his  desolation  there  comes  a  letter  :  it  is  written  by  his 
father's  hand.  It  tells  him  :  "  Come  back  to  us  ;  come  back, 
if  you  are  truly  sorry  for  the  past,  and  disposed  to  do  your 
duty  ;  we  will  take  you  to  our  arms  again,  and  do  all  we 
can  to  make  you  happy."  And'  this  letter  moreover  tells 
him  how  to  come,  and  says  if  he  will  come  at  once,  he  shall 
find  no  difficulty  ;  and  it  adds,  "  Much  as  we  love  you,  my 


LETTER    V.  49 

child,  we  are  afraid  to  trust  you  with  much  money — we  know 
by  experience  that  it  is  not  good  for  you  to  be  independent. 
But  your  passage  is  provided  for  all  along  the  way,  and 
with  the  little  that  we  send  you  now,  you  can  make  your  way 
to  the  nearest  sea-port,  and  thus  beginning  your  journey,  you 
will  find  every  necessary  arrangement  made  at  the  successive 
points  along  your  route." 

'  Now  if  that  son  were  truly  sorry  for  his  fault — if  he 
really  intended  to  go  home — if  he  had  full  confidence  in  his 
father's  foresight,  truth  and  kindness,  I  can  hardly  suppose 
he  would  tarry  for  a  moment ;  he  would  commence  his 
journey  in  full  confidence,  although  the  particulars  of  its 
arrangement  might  not  be  made  known  to  him. 

The  son  may  answer  his  father's  letter  on  this  wise — he  is 
very  penitent,  very  anxious  to  return,  but  he  has  no  money  ; 
he  is  afraid  to  undertake  such  a  journey  without  a  larger 
amount  of  means  in  his  possession,  and  thinks  he  had  better 
tarry  awhile,  until,  by  patient  industry,  he  has  accumulated 
something  upon  which  he  may  fall  back  in  case  of  accident. 
Could  his  father  fail  to  discern,  beneath  all  this  fair  speech,  a 
lurking  pride,  a  dissatisfaction  at  being  thus  treated  like  a 
little  child,  a  secret  want  of  confidence  in  the  prudence  and 
foresight  of  his  parent  ? 

Perchance  the  son  may  take  this  view  of  the  subject — 

that  it  is  but  a  short  time  since  he  has  begun  to  have  better 

thoughts,  and  he  is  very  much  afraid  his  good  impressions 

may  prove  but  transient  ;  that  if  he  should  now  go  home, 

promising  to  cease  from  his  evil  ways,  and  to  be  a  dutiful 

son,  and  should  afterwards  break  this  promise  and  disappoint 

3 


50  LETTER     V. 

the  expectations  he  had  excited,  it  would  be  a  great  injury 
to  him,  and  a  lasting  disgrace  to  his  family.  He  thinks 
it  best  to  try  himself  awhile,  and  see  whether  he  is  a 
truly  reformed  man,  before  he  seeks  again  the  parental 
roof. 

Now  what  does  this  amount  to  ?  He  hopes  to  be  a 
better  son,  and  he  begins  by  express  disobedience  to  his 
father's  injunction,  which  was  to  return  at  once  and  without 
the  least  delay.  He  wishes  to  reform,  and,  instead  of 
placing  himself  under  the  hallowing  influences  of  home, 
remains  among  rude,  depraved,  vicious  men,  the  weight  of 
whose  influence  is  altogether  upon  the  side  of  self-mdulgence. 
By  failing  to  act  when  his  heart  is  softened  by  the  workings 
of  memory,  and  the  dispensations  of  Providence,  and  the 
effect  of  kindly  words  wafted  to  him  from  afar,  he  exposes 
himself  to  the  fearful  danger  of  becoming  once  more  indiffer- 
ent to  home,  and  of  being  bound  by  new  and  stronger  ties  to 
his  sinful  habits,  and  to  his  debasing  associations. 

You,  my  friend,  are  just  such  a  wanderer.  You  are  thus 
lovingly  called  and  invited  to  return,  and  that  without  delay, 
for  there  is  no  promise  if  you  linger.  In  making  an  open 
and  formal  profession  of  your  faith,  without  any  capital  of 
past  experience  to  rely  on,  you  do  as  that  son  would  do,  in 
committing  himself  to  a  long  and  perilous  journey,  with  no 
money  in  his  hands,  and  with  no  other  dependence  than  what 
he  should  find  provided  for  him  along  the  way.  Christ  bids 
you  promise  to  be  a  Christian  ;  he  gives  you  just  grace 
enough  to  serve  your  present  need,  (for.  according  to 
Flavel,  "  the  desire  for  grace  is  grace  begun,")  and  adds  his 


LETTERV.  61 

promise  that,  as  occasion  shall  require,  he  will  come  to  your 
aid.  And  if,  while  men  shall  say  that  you  have  no  religion, 
and  the  devil  whispers  that  you  will  disgrace  the  Church,  and 
your  own  experience  testifies  that  you  are  not  able  to  do 
right,  you  prefer  to  believe  God  rather  than  all  these,  and 
throw  yourself  on  his  promise  ;  you  do  then  indeed  exercise 
faith  ;  you  renounce  your  own  righteousness  ;  you  declare 
most  impressively,  "  In  thy  word  is  my  trust." 

It  is  a  grave  question  for  you  to  consider,  whether  you 
are  willing  to  trust  God  thus  far  ;  to  come  when  he  calleth, 
and  not  when  you  think  you  are  ready.  It  is  a  grave  ques- 
tion, whether  you  will  strike  out  into  the  wilderness  without 
chart  or  compass,  without  food  or  water,  and  with  the  cer- 
tainty before  you  that  you  must  perish,  unless  God  be  ever 
near.  I  trust  you  may  have  the  courage  to  do  so,  and  may 
build  your  hopes  of  perseverance  and  final  victory,  not  on 
any  fancied  attainments  of  your  own,  but  on  God's  sole  word 
and  promise. 

If,  when  so  lovingly  called  and  invited  by  God  himself, 
while  conscience  declares  you  ought  to  go,  you  hesitate  until 
you  have  tried  yourself,  you  will,  first  of  all,  disobey  the 
express  injunction  of  your  Lord,  which  is,  not  merely  to 
come,  but  to  come  without  the  least  delay.  Your  work  of 
reformation,  instead  of  being  assisted  by  the  kindly  influences 
of  Christian  sympathy  and  holy  teachings  and  heavenly 
grace,  must  be  carried  on  in  the  chill  atmosphere  of  worldli- 
ness  and  frivolity.  You  repress  and  stifle  the  generous 
emotions  of  a  heart,  softened  by  calamity,  freshly  impressed 
with  the  lessons  of  adversity,  just  beginning  to  thaw  beneath 


62  LETTERV. 

the  beams  of  God's  love  and  goodness.  Beware,  lest  while 
you  are  lingering  to  try  yourself,  the  heart  become  hard 
again,  the  precious  lessons  be  forgotten,  and  cold,  icy  indiffer- 
ence shall  prevail  where  once  were  contrition  and  gratitude 
and  holy  aspiration. 


I 


LETTER  VI. 

My  Dear  Friend, 

It  has  often  been  my  duty  to  persuade  men,  that  they 
ought  to  profess  the  faith  of  Christ  by  commg  forward  to  the 
sacraments  of  his  appointment  ;  men,  whose  fitness  consisted 
in  this  alone, — they  felt  themselves  needy,  helpless,  perishing 
sinners  ;  they  believed  that  Jesus  Christ  is  both  able  and 
wiUing  to  save  sinners  ;  and  they  were  conscious  of  a  serious 
purpose  and  desire  to  become  partakers  of  this  salvation,  and 
to  fulfil  the  conditions  it  imposes.  I  have  encouraged  them 
to  come  to  Baptism,  to  Confirmation,  and  to  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, albeit  they  were  laden  with  infirmity,  and  felt  that 
even  the  sin  against  which  they  struggled,  continually  got 
the  mastery  over  them. 

Not  unfrequently  I  have  noted  in  such  persons  a  vague 
fear  and  suspicion  of  this  teaching.  It  was  evident  that  they 
suspected  me  of  being  led,  through  a  mistaken  kindness,  to 
accommodate  the  doctrine  to  their  weakness  ;  to  lower  the 
standard  of  duty,  and  to  explain  away  that  great  truth  of 
Holy  Writ,  "  Without  hohness  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord." 

It  behoves  me,  then,  in  justice  to  you  and  to  myself,  to  do 


54  LETTERVI. 

away  such  suspicions  ;  to  show  that  this  system  of  the 
Church  promotes  holiness  in  the  largest  sense  of  that  word, 
and  that  as  members  of  Christ's  Church  we  have  singular 
advantages  for  the  attainment  of  this  character. 

The  obscurity  in  this  matter  arises  altogether  from 
confounding  two  things  that  should  always  be  kept  separate, 
viz.,  the  conditions  on  which  we  are  pardoned,  and  our  duty 
after  we  are  pardoned.  The  truly  awakened  man,  the 
earnest  inquirer  after  eternal  life,  does  indeed  at  once  "cease 
to  do  evil,  and  learn  to  do  well."  We  distrust  the  sincerity 
of  any  man  who  pretends  to  religious  concern,  without  en- 
deavoring to  restrain  his  evil  inclinations  or  practice  the 
virtues  inculcated  in  the  Gospel. 

But  still,  perfection  of  Christian  character  is  not  among 
the  terms  of  pardon  proposed  to  us  in  the  Gospel.  It  is 
proposed  to  us  as  our  rule  of  life  ;  it  is  that  after  which  we 
must  continually  strive,  and  no  man  is  safe,  who,  once  par- 
doned and  adopted  into  God's  family,  does  not  honestly  en- 
deavor to  keep  the  law  in  its  letter  and  in  its  spirit,  and  to  at- 
tain "  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ." 

When  a  man  is  first  awakened  to  a  sense  of  his  danger, 
and  his  mind  is  agitated  by  the  agonies  of  remorse  and 
self-loathing  and  anxiety  and  dread,  it  will  not  do  to  tell  him 
a  long  story,  or  to  set  him  upon  any  difficult  investigation. 
Our  speech  must  be  brief  and  to  the  point.  We  find,  then, 
the  terms  of  pardon  as  proposed  to  us  in  the  Gospel  to  be 
few  and  simple.  "  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall 
be  saved  ;"  "  If  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  believe   in   thine   heart   that  God  hath  raised 


LETTER    VI.  55 

him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved."  When  the 
jailer  asked,  "  Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?"  the 
Apostles  answer,  "  What  must  you  do  ?  do  nothing — believe, 
and  be  saved."  They  do  not  send  that  man  off  to  practice 
reformation  awhile,  and  to  acquire  a  holy  character.  They 
tell  him  to  fall  in  with  a  salvation  already  worked  out  for 
him  :  they  take  him  untried  as  he  was,  and  immediately 
upon  his  profession  of  being  vsdlling  to  trust  his  soul  with 
Christ,  they  officially  assure  him  of  God's  good  will  and 
pardon  by  baptizing  him — so  also  with  the  thousands  con- 
verted upon  the  day  of  Pentecost :  upon  repentance  and 
faith,  they  were  at  once  received  into  the  Church. 

But  after  the  jailer's  conversion  and  baptism,  released 
from  his  despair  and  full  of  gratitude  for  a  pardon  which  he 
had  done  nothing  to  deserve,  another  question  must  have 
arisen  in  his  mind — What  is  my  duty  now  ?  What  course 
must  I  pursue  in  order  that  I  may  not  forfeit  this  blessed 
pardon  ?  How  shall  I  testify  to  God  and  man  that  I  am 
not  insensible  to  the  exceeding  condescension  and  forbearance 
of  my  Lord  ?  Now  the  Apostles  could  safely  say,  "  Giving 
all  diligence,  add  to  your  faith  virtue  ;  and  to  virtue,  knowl- 
edge ;  and  to  knowledge,  temperance  ;  and  to  temperance, 
patience  ;  and  to  patience,  godliness  ;  and  to  godliness, 
brotherly  kindness  ;  and  to  brotherly  kindness,  charity." 
And  that  pardoned  man  thus  instructed  in  his  duty  might 
well  resolve  that  by  God's  grace  he  would  strive  to  gain  all 
these  heavenly  tempers.  Suppose,  however,  that  the  Apostles 
had  thus  answered  his  earnest  question  about  the  way  of 
pardon  :  that  instead  of  asking  him,  Can  you  trust  Christ  ? 


56  LETTEEVI. 

they  had  demanded  whether  he  had  virtue,  and  knowledge, 
and  temperance,  and  charity,  and  godhness  ?  The  poor  man 
would  then  have  sunk  in  despair,  for  he  had  none  of  these 
graces  and  saw  no  way  of  acquiring  them. 

Now  this  provision  of  the  Gospel  is  most  reasonable. 
Man  must  be  assured  of  pardon  before  he  can  try  to  be  really 
holy.  With  Sinai's  thunders  in  our  ears,  and  God  present 
to  our  thoughts  as  an  angry,  vindictive  judge  alone,  and  an 
amount  of  woe  already  accumulated  sufficient  to  ensure  our 
misery,  we  have  no  heart  to  attempt  amendment  ;  but  when 
God  blots  out  the  past  and  says,  I  forgive  it  all — when  he 
places  us  who  were  prone  in  the  dust,  at  least  upon  our  knees 
and  upon  the  palms  of  our  hands,  and  says  in  kindly  voice, 
"  My  son,  now  try  and  do  better — I  intend  to  help  you,  and 
you  must  try  to  imitate  the  justice  and  the  mercy  and  the 
purity  which  you  see  in  me — if  you  do  not  this,  it  will  be 
a  sign  that  you  do  not  love  me,  and  I  must  of  necessity 
disown  you  as  a  child," — 0  !  what  new  motives  are  supplied 
us  !  how  ashamed  must  we  feel  not  to  do  our  best  !  how 
pleasant  to  do  for  love's  sake  with  his  help  what  we  could 
never  have  done  for  fear  without  that  help  ! 

I  will  now  venture  to  affirm,  that  the  omission  of  a  holy 
character  acquired  from  the  terms  of  pardon,  raises,  instead 
of  lowering  the  standard  of  Christian  character  :  for  if  we 
come  to  Christ  empty,  we  receive  of  his  fullness  and  magnify 
his  grace  :  if  we  come  full-handed,  we  rob  him  of  his  honor. 

One  man  has  been  the  subject  of  a  bright  conversion. 
He  says,  I  am  not  afraid  to  come  into  the  Church,  because  I 
am  a  different  man  from  what  I  used  to  be.     I  have  had 


LETTER    VI.  57 

such  precious  evidences,  such  good  feelings,  and  such  power- 
ful impressions  made  upon  my  mind,  that  I  feel  reasonably 
certain  I  shall  not  change  my  purpose' 'Uor  turn  back  to  the 
world.  Here  is  self-righteousness  ;  self-complacency:  here  is 
an  evident  reliance  on  something  apart  from  God's  grace  and 
promise.  Is  this  man  a  better  man  than  he  who  comes 
oppressed  by  a  sense  of  his  unworthiness,  with  no  good 
feelings,  but  fairly  driven  to  Christ  by  the  clear  conviction 
that  to  stay  away  is  to  die  ?  who  knows  he  cannot  hold 
out,  who  is  afraid  that  he  will  relapse  into  vice  and  sin,  and 
says  with  fear  and  trembling.  Lord,  save  me,  I  perish  ? 

If  we  must  be  holy  before  we  are  pardoned,  then  Chris- 
tianity is  not  very  different  from  the  religions  of  the  Pagan 
world.     They  all  said  this,  and  because  they  said  this,  they  • 
ever  failed  to  give  comfort  to  the  troubled  conscience. 

If  we  must  be  holy  before  we  are  pardoned,  then  the  Ro- 
manist is  right,  and  we  are  not  forgiven  for  the  alone  merits 
and  death  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

If  we  must  be  holy  before  we  are  pardoned,  then  we  reach 
this  very  strange  conclusion,  that  a  man  before  he  has  saving 
faith,  can  perform  good  works,  pleasant  and  acceptable  unto 
God. 

The  peculiar  excellence  of  our  blessed  religion,  the  great 
principle  therein,  which  has  ever  comforted  the  despondent 
and  raised  the  fallen,  is  simply  this, — it  first  forgives^  and  then 
it  sanctifies.  It  uttereth  no  such  mocking  words  in  the  ears 
of  men  as  "Be  holy,  and  you  shall  be  forgiven;"  but  after 
pardoning  freely,  "without  money  and  without  price,"  it 
crieth  to  us  who  are  thus  saved,  not  by  works  of  righteousness 

3* 


58  LETTER    VI. 

which  we  have  done,  but  according  to  God's  mercy,  by  the 
"washing  of  regeneration  and  the  renewing  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  "  Now,  be  holy,  because  you  are  pardoned." 

Holiness  is  not  then  a  requisite  for  pardon,  but  it  is  the 
high  and  indispensable  duty  of  all  those  who  have  been  par- 
doned. It  is  the  evidence  that  we  have  passed  from  death 
unto  life  ;  it  is  the  condition  on  which  depends  the  continu- 
ance of  God's  favor  and  goodness. 

If  now  you  come  to  the  ordinances  and  sacraments  of  the 
Church,  with  the  very  humble  qualifications  which  I  have 
mentioned,  think  not  that  your  work  is  done.  On  the  con- 
trary, you  are  just  beginning  it.  You  undertake  to  lead  a 
sober,  godly,  and  righteous  life,  and  make  a  most  solemn  vow 
to  this  effect  ;  you  choose  for  yourself  no  lower  standard  than 
that  of  our  Lord's  example  ;  and  you  must  inevitably  forfeit 
your  pardon  itself  if  you  do  not  honestly  endeavor  to  grow 
up  from  a  babe  to  a  full-grown  man  in  Christ  Jesus. 

While  the  Church,  following  the  teaching  of  Scripture, 
makes  the  terms  of  pardon  very  few  and  very  moderate,  she 
does  also,  according  to  the  same  Scripture,  declare  it  to  be 
the  bounden  duty  of  every  man  to  aim  at  a  progressive,  warm- 
hearted, and  consistent  piety. 

An  adult  is  baptized.  Before  he  is  dismissed  from  the 
font,  the  Church  admonishes  him  that  he  is  now  "  the  child 
of  God  and  of  the  light ;"  that  he  must  "  walk  answerably  to 
his  Christian  calling,  and  as  becometh  the  children  of  light;" 
that  he  must  "  continually  mortify  all  his  evil  and  corrupt 
affections,  and  daily  proceed  in  all  virtue  and  godliness  of 
living." 


LETTER    VI.  69 

In  Confirmation  she  prays  for  her  children,  "  that  they 
may  daily  increase  in  the  Holy  Spirit  more  and  more."  How 
instructive  this  !  We  must  increase  and  grow,  and  that  every 
day  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  more  and  more  each  day.  In  her 
form  of  Family  Prayer  she  teaches  us  each  morning  to 
"  dedicate  both  our  souls  and  bodies  to  God  in  a  sober,  right- 
eous, and  godly  life;"  and  then  to  pray  him  to  "strengthen 
and  confirm"  us  in  this  resolution,  "  that  as  we  grow  in  age, 
we  may  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour."  Yet  again,  in  Ordination,  she  solemnly  warns  her 
Priests,  "  See  that  ye  never  cease  your  labor,  your  care  and 
diligence,  until  ye  have  done  all  that  lieth  in  you,  according 
to  your  bounden  duty,  to  bring  all  committed  to  your  charge 
to  that  agreement  in  the  faith  and  knowledge  of  God,  and  to 
that  ripeness  and  perfectness  of  age  in  Christ,  that  there  be  no 
place  left  among  you  either  for  error  in  doctrine  or  for  vi- 
ciousness  in  life." 

The  Church  is  faithful.  Oh,  that  her  children  lived  up  to 
her  teachings  !  Over  and  over  again,  in  her  exhortations  and 
collects,  does  she  press  upon  us  the  vast  importance,  the  ab- 
solute necessity  for  our  safety,  of  cherishing  a  warm  and 
devotional  spirit ;  of  faithfully  endeavoring  to  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  the  saints  in  all  godly  living,  and  of  seeking  after 
that  mind  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus. 

While,  then,  I  urge  you  not  to  wait  until  you  are  holy,  in 
the  full  sense  of  that  word,  before  you  come  into  the  Church, 
understand  me  not  to  say  that  holiness  is  a  matter  of  indif- 
ference, or  that  you  can  be  saved  vnthout  it.  Far  from  it; 
to  attain  that  state,  must  be  the  great  study  of  your  life.   All 


60  LETTER    VI. 

your  sins  and  failures  should  mortify  and  distress  you,  and 
lead  you  constantly  to  the  throne  of  grace.  And  you  are 
never  to  rest  satisfied  and  contented  with  what  you  have 
done,  but  ever  to  press  forward,  and  reach  after  completeness 
and  perfection  of  Christian  character. 

I  have  ever  thought  that  of  all  woes,  that  incurred  by  the 
formal,  worldly-minded,  ungodly  Churchman,  must  be  the 
greatest.  What  singular  privileges  he  enjoys  !  On  every 
occasion  of  public  service.  Mother  Church  says  to  him.  My 
son,  first  of  all  bethink  thyself ;  kneel  down  and  confess  thy 
sins,  and  do  so  with  thine  owti  lips  and  tongue.  On  holy 
days  she,  more  than  this,  utters  in  his  ear  the  precepts  of  the 
law  one  by  one,  and  bids  him  ask  pardon  for  the  past,  and 
grace  for  the  future.  She  reads  to  him  the  Scripture,  that 
he  may  not  be  dependent  on  man's  exposition  for  his  knowl- 
edge of  God's  will.  She  calls  him  at  every  Communion  sea- 
son to  examine  himself,  to  amend  his  ways,  to  reconsecrate 
himself  to  God.  She  admonishes  him,  if  in  doubt  and  dis- 
quietude, to  seek  his  pastor  and  disclose  his  grief.  She 
proposes  to  his  consideration,  in  regular  order,  every  great 
event  of  Gospel  history,  every  grand  mystery  of  the  Gospel 
revelation. 

Her  whole  system  is  instinct  with  life  and  warmth  and 
glowing  devotion;  and  it  is  with  this  spirit  that  she  would 
imbue  her  children.  "  Praise  ye  the  Lord,"  she  cries.  "  Lift 
up  your  hearts."  "  Let  us  give  thanks  unto  our  Lord  God." 
And  as  though  we  could  not  but  be  warmed  and  animated 
with  the  holy  truths  and  the  blessed  hopes  set  before  us  in 
her  service,  she  pauses,  as  it  were,  ever  and  anon,  that  we 


LETTER    VI.  61 

may  cry,  "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to 
the  Holy  Ghost." 

In  the  Psalms  of  David  she  furnishes  us  with  a  standard 
of  religious  experience,  certified  by  Almighty  God  himself,  as 
safe,  reliable,  and  genuine ;  free  alike  from  the  coldness  of  the 
mere  formalist,  and  from  the  extravagance  of  the  fanatic. 
The  Holy  Communion,  offered  to  us  not  at  long  and  rare 
intervals,  as  a  thing  of  terror  and  a  dangerous  ordeal,  but 
frequently,  and  on  every  occasion  of  peculiar  solemnity,  be- 
comes, in  our  estimation,  a  feast  of  love,  a  divine  provision 
to  sustain  us  in  our  weary  pilgrimage.  "  Draw  near  with 
faith,"  she  says,  "  and  take  this  holy  Sacrament  to  your 
comfort." 

She  follows  us  to  our  homes;  she  comes  to  us  when 
stretched  upon  a  bed  of  sickness,  admonishing  us  to  take  our 
troubles  patiently.  She  has  provided  prayers  for  the  troubled 
in  mind  and  conscience,  and.  blessed  words  in  which  the 
parting  spirit  may  be  commended  to  the  God  from  whom  it 
came. 

And  if  a  man  thus  taught,  thus  constantly  reminded  of 
his  duty,  thus  warned,  encouraged,  rebuked,  and  comforted  ; 
if  he  is  unfaithful  and  unholy,  idle,  resentful,  self-indulgent, 
worldly-minded,  lucre-loving,  devoid  of  life  and  spirituality,  a 
dry  and  rotten  branch  upon  the  goodly  tree,  I  shudder  to 
think  how  the  privileges  he  has  neglected  and  abused  will 
aggravate  his  final  distress. 

I  have  thus  taken  upon  me,  who  am  but  dust  and  ashes, 
to  write  to  you  of  high  and  holy  things.  I  think  I  have  ut- 
tered truth  ;  for  I  have  but  echoed,  in  the  main  positions  of 


62  LETTER    VI. 

these  letters,  the  distinct  voice  of  Scripture,  and  of  Mother 
Church. 

And  now,  poor  wanderer  upon  the  bleak  common  of  the 
world,  ragged,  weary,  hungry,  and  diseased,  come  back  to 
your  father's  house.  In  it  there  is  room  enough,  and  bread 
enough,  and  love  enough  for  all.  Wait  not  until  you  are 
restored  to  soundness,  stay  not  for  better  clothes,  tarry  not 
until  you  have  found  something  to  bring  with  you,  but  come 
as  you  are  to  Christ  in  his  Church  ;  and  then,  clad  and  fed, 
revived  and  restored  by  his  kind  hand,  let  gratitude  impel 
you  to  aim  after  (I  will  not  say  angelic,  but)  divine  purity 
and  perfection. 


1 


POSTSCRIPT. 


QUESTIONS 

By  which  one  viay  decide  whether  he  is  a  truly  converted^  and 

a  Christian  man. 

The  Scriptures  lay  stress  on  these  four  principal  things  : 
1.  Repentance.  2.  Faith.  3.  Charity.  4.  Holiness.  No 
unconverted  man  can  possess  these  graces. 

REPENTANCE. 

1.  Do  I  realize  that  my  heart  is  by  nature  deceitful  above 
all  things,  and  desperately  wicked,  averse  to  God,  unable 
and  unwilling  to  keep  his  holy  law  ? 

2.  Do  I  feel  that  my  transgressions  are  innumerable  ? 
that  they  have  been  perpetrated  deliberately,  knowingly,  re- 
peatedly, and  that  eternal  punishment  is  no  more  than  they 
deserve  ? 

3.  Am  I  truly  grieved  at  their  remembrance  ?  do  I  re- 
alize their  hatefulness,  and  specially  deplore  their  ingratitude  ? 
Are  they  to  me  a  grief,  a  burden  and  a  thrall,  from  which  I 
would  make  any  sacrifice  to  be  delivered  ? 

4.  Am  I  sincerely  desirous  to  be  delivered  from  the  power 
as  well  as  from  the  punishment  of  them  ? 


64  POSTSCRIPT. 

FAITH. 

1.  Do  I  steadfastly  believe  the  Gospel  narrative  ? 

2.  Do  I  receive  the  whole  Bible  as  God's  own  word  ? 

3.  Do  I  acknowledge  Christ,  as  my  substitute  smitten  in 
my  stead — as  my  teacher  whom  I  must  heed — as  my  exam- 
ple whom  I  must  imitate  ? 

4.  Owning  myself  a  vile  sinner,  without  a  shadow  of  a 
claim  on  God's  justice,  do  I  embrace  the  offer  of  his  mercy 
made  me  in  Christ,  and  do  I  rest  the  undivided  burden  of 
my  soul,  simply  on  the  merits  and  intercession  of  my  dear 
Lord? 

CHARITY. 

1.  Whereas  I  once  loved  not  God,  nor  love  him  now  but 
poorly,  do  I  yet  prefer  him  to  wife,  children,  land,  fame,  and 
life  itself  ?  Is  his  service  my  choice,  his  honor  dear  to  me  ; 
and  do  my  chief  pleasures  flow  from  his  approbation  ? 

2.  Do  I  remember  with  thankfulness  the  exceeding  love 
of  my  Master  and  only  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  in  dying  for  me, 
and  sending  the  Spmt  to  sanctify  me,  in  providing  his  word 
to  instruct  me,  and  his  Church  to  house  me  and  feed  me,  and 
in  going  to  prepare  me  a  place  in  heaven  ? 

3.  Do  I  heartily  forgive  all  who  have  injured  me  by  word 
or  deed  ?     Do  I  pray  for  them,  and  desire  to  do  them  good  ? 

4.  Do  I  count  all  men  my  brethren,  and  strive  as  I  may  to 
promote  their  welfare  in  body  and  in  soul  ?  Am  I  specially 
drawn  to  all  sincere  and  humble-minded  followers  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  and  do  I  find  pleasure  in  cultivating  intercourse  and 


POSTSCRIPT.  65 

in  exchanging  offices  of  love  with  those  who  are  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith  ? 

HOLINESS.  , 

1.  Do  I  honestly  pray,  meditate,  search  the  Scriptures, 
attend  to  the  Church's  voice  and  use  the  Gospel  ordinances, 
in  order  that  I  may  discern  my  duty,  and  be  enabled  to  dis- 
charge it  ? 

2.  Do  I  indulge  in  no  acknowledged,  presumptuous  sin, 
nor  neglect  any  well-known  duty  ?  Do  I  watch  as  well  as 
pray  ;  and  while  I  make  many  mistakes  and  commit  grievous 
faults,  can  I  appeal  to  God  in  sincerity  that  it  is  my  earnest 
desire  and  effort  to  do  my  whole  duty  as  a  Christian  ? 

3.  Do  I  render  to  God  the  service  of  my  affections,  and 
the  reverence  of  my  body  ?  Do  I  regard  myself  as  his 
steward  in  my  estate,  honoring  him  with  the  first  fruits  and 
serving  myself  last,  accounting  it  a  privilege,  not  a  hardship, 
to  feed  his  poor,  and  to  set  forward  his  Church  ? 

4.  Have  I  been  baptized  and  confirmed  ?  And  do  I  with 
reverence  and  self-examination,  and  with  holy  vows  of  amend- 
ment, receive  from  time  to  time  the  emblems  of  Christ's  body 
and  blood  ? 


Try  yourself  by  these  questions  and  such  as  these.  Thus, 
instead  of  "keeping  the  manna  of  old  experience  by  you 
until  it  corrupts  in  your  hands,"  you  shall  have  it  fresh  from 
heaven  each  day. 


%' 


REVIEW 


OF  ;^    ^ 


Dr.  R.  J.  BRECKINRIDGE'S  LETTERS, 


ON 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  RULING  ELDERS. 


FROM  THE 


PRINCETON  REVIEW, 


APRIli,  1844. 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

PRINTED    BY     JOHN     T.    ROBINSO  NA 

1844,  ' 


i 


..if* 


THE  ELDER  QUESTION. 


It  is  truly  mortifying  that  the  Presbyterian  Church,  at 
this  period  of  her  history,  instead  of  "leaving  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  going  on  unto  perfec- 
tion," should  be  employed  in  the  juvenile  task  of  laying 
again  the  foundation  of  the  "doctrine  of  laying  on  of 
hands."  We  are  utter  disbelievers  in  the  vaunted  efficacy 
of  a  perpetual  recurrence  in  the  spirit  of  sceptical  inquiry, 
to  the  first  principles  of  our  organization.  The  distinc- 
tive features  of  the  Presbyterian  form  of  church  govern- 
ment have  been  known  and  settled  for  ages  ;  and  yet  there 
are  some  who  would  persuade  us  that  all  who  have  hither- 
to embraced  this  system  have  used  it,  as  common  people  do 
their  watches,  without  comprehending  at  all  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  its  construction ;  and  who  seek  therefore  to  divert 
the  energy  of  the  church  from  reaching  forward  unto  those 
things  that  are  before,  and  waste  it  in  the  re-examination 
of  foundations  that  were  long  since  well  and  securely  laid. 

It  is  a  great  evil,  when  a  church,  instead  of  acting  with  the 
genial  vigour  of  a  well  settled  faith  in  the  established  prin- 
ciples of  her  organization,  is  agitated  with  a  perpetual  in- 
quiry as  to  what  her  principles  really  are.  If  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  this  country  after  a  century  of  well- 
defined  practice  under  a  written  constitution,  needs  to  be 
instructed  in  such  elementary  matters,  as  who  ought  to  per- 
form the  work  of  ordination  to  the  ministry,  and  what  con- 
stitutes a  quorum  of  her  ecclesiastical  courts,  v/e  see  no  rea- 
son to  hope  for  any  progress  in  all  time  to  come.  If  these 
matters  have  not  been  already  settled  beyond  a  rea- 
sonable doubt,  we  see  not  how  they  can  now  be  settled, 
so  as  to  prevent  them  from  becoming  the  means  of  future 
agitation. 

It  forms  a  part  of  the  mortifying  character  of  the  present 
agitation  of  our  church,  that  it  should  touch  upon  ques- 
tions that  are  in  themselves  of  such  little  moment.  How 
many  members  shall  be  required  to  constitute  a  quorum  of 
a  Presbytery,  and  whether  among  the  designated  number 
there  shall  be  one  or  more  ruling  elders  are  questions,  that 


involving  no  principle  of  abstract  truth  or  necessary  order, 
can  be  determined  only  by  general  considerations  of  expe- 
diency. We  know  not  what  incessant  and  powerful  ap- 
peals to  some  of  the  worst  principles  of  human  nature 
may  effect  in  the  end,  but  we  are  sure  that  no  calm  and 
considerate  argument  will  ever  succeed  in  convincing  the 
sober  judgment  of  the  ministers  and  elders  of  the  Presby- 
terian church,  that  our  fathers  in  establishing  the  quorum 
clause  in  our  constitution,  or  their  successors  in  their  uni- 
form practice  under  it,  had  any  intention  to  encroach  upon 
the  rights  of  the  elders,  or  diminish  in  any  degree  their  im- 
portance. The  notion  that  the  intent  or  the  effect  of  the 
rule,  or  of  the  practice  under  it,  is  to  establish  a  hierarchy, 
or  to  take  the  initial  step  towards  so  monstrous  a  conclu- 
sion, is  simply  farcical ;  or  at  least  it  would  be  so,  if  no  other 
means  than  dispassionate  argument  were  employed  in  sup- 
port of  it.  Nor  do  we  suppose  that  an  attempt  to  show 
that  our  fathers  or  ourselves  in  maintaining  that  ordina- 
tion to  the  office  of  preaching  the  word,  and  administer- 
ing the  sacraments  should  be  performed  by  those  who 
have  themselves  been  authorized  to  discharge  these  func- 
tions, did  really  disclose  an  implicit  belief  that  ordination 
was  a  mystical  charm,  would  be  deemed  worthy  a  serious 
thought,  were  this  attempt  made  in  the  simple  sincerity  of 
honest  argument.  That  the  whole  Presbyterian  church  of 
this  and  other  lands  have  been  for  ages  devoted  to  a  super- 
stitious belief,  and  need  now  to  have  some  one,  in  the  plen- 
itude of  his  gifts,  declare  unto  them  the  true  meaning  of 
that  which  they  have  ignorantly  worshipped,  is  too  pre- 
posterous for  grave  argument.  It  will  be  impossible 
by  any  ingenuity  of  argument  to  persuade  the  church, 
that  the  belief  that  ruling  elders  ought  not  to  impose 
hands  in  ordination  is  a  superstition,  or  that  it  involves 
the  injurious  intents  and  consequences  which  are  charged 
upon  it.  The  question  is  in  itself  of  trifling  moment. 
It  is  a  matter  merely  of  fitness  and  propriety.  If  any 
Presbytery  had  seen,  fit  quietly  to  depart  from  presby- 
terian  usage  in  this  matter,  no  one  we  presume  would 
have  thought  it  expedient  to  call  their  conduct  into  ques- 
tion, for  no  one  believes  that  the  act  of  ordination  is  ren- 
dered invalid  by  the  supererogatory  addition  of  the  hands  of 
the  ruling  elders.  But  when  it  is  claimed  that  all  Presby- 
teries ought  to,  and  shall  ordain  in  this  manner,  upon  the 
ground  that  there  is  no  distinction  of  order  between  the 
bishop  and  the  ruling  elder,  the  question  becomes  one  of  prin- 
ciple, and  wc  are  called  upon  to  vindicate  the  ancient  faith 


of  the  Presbyterian  church  when  thus  attacked  through  a 
proposed  change  in  one  of  its  ceremonial  usages. 

It  is  also  worthy  of  consideration  that  the  present  agita- 
tion of  these  questions  has  arisen  from  no  practical  griev- 
ance under  the  operation  of  our  system.  No  church  has 
complained  that  its  interests  have  been  shghted  at  meetings 
of  Presbytery  held  without  the  presence  of  ruling  elders ; 
no  elders  have  complained  that  at  such  meetings  advan- 
tage has  been  taken  of  their  absence  to  encroach  upon  their 
rights  and  privileges ;  nor  has  any  elder  complained  that 
having  offered  to  take  part  in  the  ceremony  of  ordination 
he  was  hindered  therein,  and  thus  debarred  from  what  he 
deemed  a  rightful  exercise  of  his  authority.  If  the  germ 
of  a  hierarchical  establishment  is  contained  in  the  interpre- 
tation which  the  church  has  always  given  to  the  quorum 
clause  in  her  constitution,  it  is  strange  that  this  germ  should 
have  remained  so  long  undeveloped.  If  the  hierarchy  of 
this  rule  has  continued  to  this  day  constructive  only,  it 
might  have  been  permitted  to  slumber  in  its  potential  form 
until  it  had  passed  into  actual  existence.  And  if  the  con- 
finement of  the  imposition  of  hands  in  the  rite  of  ordina- 
tion to  preaching  elders,  has  resulted  as  yet  in  no  further 
encroachments  of  the  spirit  of  priestly  domination  from 
which  it  is  said  to  spring,  it  might,  we  think,  be  safely 
trusted  a  little  longer.  From  the  days  of  the  Reformation 
until  now,  every  Presbyterian  church  of  which  we  have 
any  knovvledge  has  ordained  its  preachers  by  the  hands 
of  preaching  elders ;  and  though  Milton,  in  the  disordered 
times  of  the  English  commonwealth,  complained  that 
"new  Presbyter  was  only  old  Priest  writ  large,"  it  cer- 
tainly is  not  among  the  Presbyterians  of  any  age  or  land, 
that  we  are  to  look  for  the  reign  of  priestly  usurpation. 
The  evils  complained  of  in  the  practice  of  our  church  are 
purely  abstract.  They  have  never  yet  taken  on  a  concrete 
form.  Instead  of  the  voice  of  complaint  from  parties  who 
feel  themselves  to  be  aggrieved,  v/e  have  only  the  voices  of 
those  who  are  endeavouring  to  make  the  ruling  elders  feel, 
that  in  their  ignorant  simpUcity  they  have  long  been  im- 
posed upon  without  knowing  it,  and  that  this  imposition  is 
but  the  prelude  to  further  strides  of  priestly  power  if  it  be 
not  met  with  timely  resistance.  It  is  a  singular  feature  in 
the  championship  of  the  cause  of  the  ruling  elders,  that 
the  most  difficult  part  of  the  duty  of  the  champion  consists 
in  persuading  the  body  to  be  defended  that  they  have  been 
ill  used  and  are  likely  to  be  still  further  trampled  upon. 


It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  valour  exhibited  in  such 
a  cause  will  meet  with  its  reward  or  not. 

In  the  pamphlet,  the  title  of  which  we  have  placed  at  the 
head  of  this  article,  we  have  the  substance  of  two  argu- 
ments upon  the  ordination  and  quorum  question,  delivered 
before  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  by  Dr.  R.  J.  Breckinridge, 
a  conspicuous  defender  of  what  he  deems  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  Ruling  Elders.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  General  Assembly  of  1842  decided  by  a  unanimous  vote 
that  it  was  not  within  the  intent  of  our  constitutional  rule 
upon  that  subject,  that  ruling  elders  should  join  in  the  im- 
position of  hands  in  the  rite  of  ordination.  This  vote  was 
subsequently  re-considered,  and  the  subject  was  referred  to 
the  next  Assembly.  The  last  Assembly  after  a  full  argu- 
ment of  the  case  decided  by  a  vote  of  138  to  9  that  the 
constitution  of  our  church  does  not  authorize  ruling  elders 
to  impose  hands  in  the  ordination  of  ministers.  This  was 
the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  church  expressed  through 
its  highest  court,  upon  a  question  not  hastily  brought  before 
it,  nor  hastily  decided.  If  the  church  is  capable  of  forming 
its  mind  upon  the  meaning  of  iis  own  elementary  principles 
and  methods  of  proceeding,  we  have  that  mind  distinctly 
expressed  in  this  decision.  If  the  unanimous  decision  of 
one  Assembly,  and  the  nearly  unanimous  decision  of 
another,  after  a  year's  reflection,  ought  not  to  be  final,  so 
as  to  be  an  end  of  controversy,  we  can  discern  no  means  by 
which  such  a  question  can  ever  be  definitively  settled  ;  and 
for  aught  that  we  can  see,  our  church  must  be  reduced  to 
the  humiliating  attitude  of  ever  learning  what  her  own 
simplest  rudiments  are,  and  never  coming  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth. 

By  the  same  Assembly  it  was  decided  that  any  three 
ministers  regularly  convened  are  a  quorum  competent  to 
the  transaction  of  all  business.  A  rcsolntion  to  this  effect 
was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  S3  to  35,  nearly  three  fourths  of 
the  body  voting  in  the  affirmative.  Considering  the  true 
insignificance  of  the  question  at  issue,  afiecting  not  in  any 
sense  the  constitution  of  a  presbytery,  but  only  the  defini- 
tion of  a  competent  quorum  of  the  body,  this  vote  was  suf- 
ficiently decided  to  set  the  question  at  rest.  We  shall  make 
ourselves  a  by-word  among  the  churches,  if  our  General 
Assembly  is  to  consume  its  time  year  after  year  in  discuss- 
ing such  minor  points  of  order,  and  disgrace  its  character 
as  a  right-judging  and  stable  court  by  the  utterance  of  con- 
tradictory judgments  concerning  them.  Should  the  next 
Assembly  reverse  tlie  decision  of  the  last,  we  see  not  why 


the  succeeding  one  may  not  be  called  upon  again  to  review 
and  annul.  The  decision  of  our  highest  court  upon  a  ques- 
tion of  the  interpretation  of  the  constitution,  when  calmly 
and  decisively  pronounced,  ought  in  all  ordinary  cases,  to 
be  held  final  and  conclusive.  It  were  far  better  that  they 
who  are  dissatisfied  should  receive  the  interpretation  as  au- 
thoritative, and  seek  to  obtain  such  an  amendment  to  the  con- 
stitution as  would  meet  their  wishes,  than  to  impeach  the 
wisdom  or  probity  of  the  Assembly  that  rendered  the  de- 
cision, and  attempt  to  move  succeeding  ones  to  set  it  aside. 
How  can  this  venerable  body  retain  its  hold  upon  the  con- 
fidence of  the  churches,  how  can  its  counsels  be  received 
with  respect,  or  its  mandates  obeyed  Avith  cheerful  zeal,  if 
upon  questions  affecting  the  interpretation  of  the  constitu- 
tion, the  decisions  of  one  year  are  continually  annulled  by 
those  of  the  next  ? 

Dr.  R.  J.  Breckinridge,  dissenting  from  the  decision  of 
these  two  questions  by  the  last  Assembly,  moved  the  Sy- 
nod of  Philadelphia,  at  their  meeting  in  October  last,  to 
adopt  two  several  minutes  condemning  the  resolutions  of 
the  Assembly,  and  proposing  to  the  next  Assembly  to  re- 
peal these  obnoxious  resolutions  and  adopt  others  in  their 
stead  of  a  contrary  tenor.  The  Synod  refused  to  adopt  the 
proposed  minutes,  whereupon  Dr.  Breckinridge  gave  notice 
of  an  appeal  or  complamt  to  be  taken  to  the  next  General 
Assembly,  in  the  trial  of  which  appeal  or  complaint  he 
should  insist  upon  the  exclusion  of  the  Synod  from  the 
right  of  voting  upon  any  question  connected  therewith. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  if  the  General  Assembly  enter- 
tain this  protest  against  the  decision  of  the  Synod  of  Phila- 
delphia under  the  character  of  an  appeal  or  complaint,  and 
institute  the  proceedings  directed  in  such  cases,  the  inferior 
judicatory  must  be  debarred  from  the  right  to  vote  upon 
any  question  connected  with  the  issue  of  the  matter.  And 
this  of  itself  would  be  sufficient  to  show  that  this  was  not 
a  case  in  which  either  an  appeal  or  complaint  could  with 
propriety  be  taken,  and  that  the  proper  course  for  the  As- 
sembly to  pursue  would  be  to  dismiss  it  at  once  from  consi- 
deration as  irrelevant.  If  this  appeal  is  to  be  ^o  construed  as 
to  bring  up  the  merits  of  the  main  questions  for  argument  and 
decision,  then  surely  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  ought  to  be 
upon  the  floor.  The  questions  at  issue,  not  having  relation 
to  the  wise  and  just  administration  of  law,  but  to  the  deter- 
mination of  what  the  law  itself  is,  can  with  propriety  be  set- 
tled only  by  the  united  voice  of  the  whole  church.  The  pre- 
posterous character  of  this  appeal  may  be  sufiiciently  illus- 


8 

trated  by  a  very  siipposable  case.  The  Synod  of  Kentucky 
has  within  the  past  year  passed  a  resokition  to  the  effect 
that  in  their  judgment  ruling  elders  ought  to  impose  hands 
in  the  ordination  of  ministers.  Let  us  suppose  that  some 
member  of  the  minority  had  appealed  from  this  decision  to 
the  next  Assembly,  and  that  that  body  issue  this  appeal. 
It  is  possible  that  the  state  of  opinion  in  the  next  Assem- 
bly might  be  such  that  whh  the  Synod  of  Kentucky  off 
the  floor,  as  it  must  be  in  the  trial  of  this  appeal,  the  deci- 
sion would  be  adverse  to  the  claim  set  up  on  behalf  of  the 
ruling  elders,  and  with  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  excluded 
upon  the  issue  of  Dr.  Breckinridge's  appeal,  a  contrary  de- 
cision might  be  rendered.  We  should  thus  have  the  church 
perplexed  by  two  contradictory  decisions  of  the  same  ques- 
tion by  the  same  General  Assembly.  There  can  obviously 
be  no  fixed  law  or  settled  constitution  in  a  church,  if  its 
highest  court,  in  the  exercise  of  its  prerogative  as  an  inter- 
preter of  the  law  and  the  constitution,  may  thus  be  broken 
into  fractions  by  the  conversion  of  abstract  questions  into 
personal  wrongs. 

The  utter  irrelevancy  of  Dr.  Breckinridge's  appeal  will 
be  further  apparent,  upon  a  moment's  consideration  of  the 
nature  of  the  decision  appealed  from.  The  Synod  of  Phila- 
delphia passed  no  affirmative  resolution.  They  neither 
affirmed  or  denied  the  doctrines  put  forth  by  the  last  As- 
sembly. They  simply  refused  to  adopt  certain  private 
opinions  held  by  Dr.  Breckinridge,  and  by  him  embodied 
in  writing  and  presented  for  their  acceptance.  Was  this 
refusal  a  personal  grievance  of  which  Dr.  Breckinridge  has 
a  right  to  complain  ?  The  Synod  pronounced  no  judgment 
on  the  soundness  or  unsoundness  of  his  opinions,  but  for 
reasons  which  they  have  not  seen  fit  to  assign,  they  de- 
clined to  entertain  them.  Who  was  injured  or  aggrieved  by 
this  declared  unwillingness  of  the  Synod  to  take  any  action 
in  the  matter  ?  A  delay  to  act,  may  in  some  cases,  where 
personal  rights  and  interests  are  involved,  be  unjust  and  in- 
jurious, but  in  this  matter  we  see  not  how  any  allegation  of 
wrong  can  be  sustained  except  upon  the  ground  that  Dr. 
Breckinridge  has  an  inherent  right  to  demand  that  any 
Synod  to  which  he  may  be  attached,  shall  entertain  what- 
ever opinions  he  may  see  fit  to  offer. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  upon  what  ground  other  than 
the  existence  of  some  such  unqualified  right,  the  Synod  of 
Philadelphia  could  have  been  expected  to  adopt  all  the 
opinions  that  were  on  this  occasion  offered  for  their  accep- 
tance.    In  the  minute  touching  the  quorum  question  which 


9 

Dr.  Breckinridge,  "  with  a  profound  conviction  of  its  truth 
and  a  deep  sense  of  its  timeliness"  submitted  to  the  Synod, 
this  body  is  called  upon  among  other  things,  to  express  its 
belief  that  "  the  principle  here  involved  is  practically  the 
question  between  an  aristocratical  hierarchy,  and  a  free 
Christian  commonwealth."  That  Dr.  Breckinridge  should 
believe  this  is  not  perhaps  surprising,  for  nothing  is  more 
common  than  for  men  who  find  themselves  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  community  to  which  they  belong,  to  manifest  a 
certain  extravagant  tendency  of  opinion  as  well  as  of  feeling. 
The  calmness  which  measures  the  exact  nature  and  precise 
relations  of  the  question  at  issue  is  not  to  be  expected  from  a 
man  who  feels  himself  to  be  in  the  position  of  Jeremiah,  when 
Jerusalem  was  beleaguered  by  the  army  of  aliens,  and  he  him- 
self imprisoned,  denounced  as  a  traitor,  and  threatened  with 
death,  unless  with  the  prophet's  doom  he  possesses  also  the 
prophet's  qualifications  and  supports.  That  Dr.  Breckin- 
ridge's convictions  and  feelings  should  run  out  into  great 
exaggeration,  that  matters  in  themselves  of  small  import 
should  be  magnified  into  vital  principles,  and  things  that 
are  totally  dissimilar  be  confounded  as  identical,  was  no- 
thing more  than  was  to  be  expected  from  any  uninspired 
man  occupying  the  position  in  which  he  feels  himself  to 
stand.  But  if  a  complaint  should  be  entertained  against  a 
deliberative  body,  because  they  refused  to  express  their 
beUef,  that  an  economical  rule,  which  affirms  nothing 
respecting  the  constitution  of  a  Presbytery,  which  debars 
no  one  entitled  to  partake  in  its  deliberations  and  votes 
froth  attendance  upon  its  meetings,  which  restrains  no  right 
and  curtails  no  privilege,  and  which  moreover  has  been  in 
practical  operation  for  more  than  a  century,  without  having 
led  to  any  evil,  involves  "  practically  the  question  between 
an  aristocratical  hierarchy  and  a  free  commonwealth," — this 
we  confess  would  surprise  us. 

There  are  other  methods  than  by  appeal  or  complaint  by 
which  these  questions  may  be  brought  before  the  next  As- 
sembly, under  such  a  form  as  may  provide  for  the  utterance 
of  the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  entire  body  ;  and  in  some 
one  of  these  methods  we  suppose  they  will  be  brought  up 
and  discussed  anew.  We  have  therefore  examined  Dr. 
Breckinridge's  arguments  to  ascertain  what  new  light  they 
have  shed  upon  the  subjects  of  which  they  treat.  The  many 
imputations  of  bad  motives  and  sinister  designs  to  those 
who  are  of  a  contrary  opinion,  which  these  speeches  con- 
tain, as  well  as  their  confident  prophecies,  we  shall  pass 

2 


10 

without  further  remark.  It  is  impossible  to  refute  a  sneer, 
a  vituperation,  or  a  prophecy.  Honest  deeds  are  the  only 
fit  answer  to  dishonest  words,  and  time,  in  the  absence  of 
miracles,  is  the  only  test  of  the  prophet.  But  what  they 
oifer  of  argument  or  of  fact,  bearing  upon  the  proper  dis- 
cussion of  tiie  subject,  we  propose  briefly  to  examine. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  question,  who  ought  to  impose 
hands  in  the  ordination  of  ministers,  we  do  not  find  that 
Dr.  Breckinridge  has  added  anything  to  the  argument  as 
delivered  before  the  last  Assembly.     The  whole  stress  of  this 
question  turns,  of  course,  upon  the  interpretation  to  be  given 
to  the  direction  contained  in  our  form  of  government,  that 
"  the  presiding  minister  shall  by  prayer,  and  with  the  laying 
on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presbytery,  according  to  the  apostolic 
example  solemnly  ordain  him  to  the  holy  office  of  the  gos- 
pel ministry  ;"  and  the  whole  force  of  the  reasoning,  upon 
the  side  of  those  who  would  change  our  established  customs, 
resides  in  the  assumption  that  the  presbytery  herein  named 
must  of  necessity,  mean  the  Presbytery  previously  defined 
as  consisting  of  ministers  and  ruling  elders.     "  Presbytery 
imposes  hands  in  ordination  ;  elders  are  of  right  members 
of  that   body ;    therefore   they   must    necessarily   impose 
hands."     This  is  the  whole  argument.     To  assert  that  the 
Presbytery  that  imposes  hands  is  not  the  entire  Presbytery 
Dr.  Breckinridge  declares  to  be  '•'  utter  folly."     "  Why,"  he 
asks,  "  would  you  stultify  our  fathers  ?     Did  they  first  define 
with  the  utmost  clearness  the  term  Presbytery  ;  then  invest 
the  body  so  called  with  the  power  of  ordaining  ministers  of 
the  word  ;  then  in  a  long  chapter  treating  of  this  ordination 
in  detail  use  the  word  a  dozen  times  in  its  defined  sense  ; 
and  then  without  motive  or  notice,  use  the  same  word  in 
the  same  chapter  and  touching  the  same  business,  in  a  sense 
not  only  inconsistent  with  their  own  definition  and  their  con- 
stant use  of  it,  but  in  a  sense  flatly  contrary  to  both  ?     The 
thing  is  supremely  absurd."     Here  is  the  whole  case  on  the 
other  side.     And  we  are  willing  to  grant  that  the  prima 
facie  meaning  of  the  language  is  in  favour  of  the  interpre- 
tation here  given  to  it.     But  we  find  suflicient  evidence  that 
this  is  not  the  true  explanation,  in  the  historical  fact,  altogeth- 
er unexplained  and  inexplicable,  upon  the  contrary  hypothe- 
sis, that  in  the  actual  practice  of  our  church  with  few  and  un- 
important exceptions,  ministers  have  been  ordained  by  the 
imposition  of  the  hands  of  ministers.     The  language  of  the 
written  constitution,  it  is  affirmed,  is  clear  and  explicit ;  it 
can  have  but  one  meaning;  to  attempt  to  give  it  any  other 
is  to  stultify  our  fathers,  is  utter  folly,  is  supremely  absurd. 


11 

How  then  came  it  to  pass  that  our  fathers  stultified  them- 
selves, for  it  is  undeniable  that  they  ordained  by  the  imposi- 
tion of  the  hands  of  preaching  elders  ?  If  the  language  of 
the  constitution  is  so  unequivocal  and  explicit  that  it  can 
bear  but  one  meaning,  how  happens  it  that  it  was,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  understood  and  applied  in  a  different  mean- 
ing by  our  fathers  and  by  all  Avho  have  succeeded  them, 
even  until  the  present  day  ?  This  fact  is  in  truth  decisive 
of  the  controversy.  It  is  perfectly  futile  for  men  to  write 
and  speak,  however  plausibly  or  ably,  to  prove  that  certain 
language  can  have  butone  meaning,  when  it  isanotorious  fact 
that  they  who  indited  that  language  and  the  whole  church 
after  them  for  a  period  of  fifty  years,  have  actually  attached 
to  it  a  different  meaning.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to 
explain  this  fact.  Our  fathers,  whom  we  are  urged  in  filial 
tenderness  not  to  stultify,  are  left  in  the  extraordinary  pre- 
dicament of  having  formally  laid  down  a  proposition  in 
terms  too  explicit  to  be  misunderstood,  and  then  instantly 
reduced  to  action  one  that  is  not  only  inconsistent  with  it, 
but  flatly  contrary  thereto ;  that  is,  through  incredible  ig- 
norance they  were  incapable  of  comprehending  their  own 
language,  or  through  wilful  dishonesty  they  perverted  it. 
We  have  said  that  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  explain  this 
fact,  for  we  do  not  reckon  as  such  Dr.  Breckinridge's  argu- 
ment to  show  "  the  absurdit^r  of  talking  about  a  practice  that 
elders  should  not  impose  hands."  If  there  be  any  other 
man  than  one  of  straw  who  has  ever  talked  thus,  we  con- 
gratulate Dr.  Breckinridge  upon  his  triumphant  victory  over 
him.  Nor  do  we  consider  the  force  of  the  argument  drawn 
from  the  practice  of  the  fathers  of  our  church  as  impaired  in 
any  degree  by  Dr.  Breckinridge's  denial  that  the  practice  of 
ordaining  by  the  imposition  of  the  hands  of  preaching  elders 
has  been  strictly  universal.  What  may  have  been  done  in 
one  or  two  western  Presbyteries,  of  late  years,  we  know  not, 
but  it  is  beyond  all  doubt,  that  at  the  establishment  of  our 
church,  the  practice  was  universal,  and  that  from  that  day 
to  this,  the  same  practice  has  prevailed  throughout  the  church. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  is  a  truly  desperate  attempt,  to 
show  that  the  framers  of  our  constitution  intended  to  estab- 
lish a  rule  which  was  flatly  contradicted  by  every  act  to 
which  that  rule  was  applicable.  The  plain  palpable  force 
of  the  concurrent  practice  of  the  church  from  its  commence- 
ment until  now  is  not  to  be  evaded.  It  is  conclusive  as  to 
the  meaning  which  our  fathers  who  established  the  constitu- 
tion attached  to  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presbytery. 
Whether  these  words  can  properly  bear  this  meaning  or  not, 


12 

it  is  certain  that  this  was  the  meaning  which  they  actually 
affixed  to  them  when  they  inserted  them  in  the  Form  of 
Government ;  it  was  in  this  sense  that  the  church  received 
them  in  adopting  the  constitution ;  it  is  in  this  sense  that 
they  have  ever  since  been  interpreted ;  and  it  is  in  this  sense 
that  we  are  bound  by  them.  Of  what  avail  is  it,  in  dispar- 
agement of  this  conclusion,  to  tell  us  of  other  practices  of 
this  same  church,  such  as  the  disuse  of  the  office  of  deacon, 
and  the  establishment  and  tolerance  of  the  Plan  of  Union, 
that  were  clearly  unconstitutional?  Who  needs  to  be 
taught  the  distinction  between  a  corrupt  practice  that  has 
crept  into  the  church,  however  insidiously,  at  some  definite 
period  of  her  history,  and  one  that  is  co-eval  with  its  consti- 
tution and  necessarily  interpretative  of  it  ? 

The  conclusion  to  which  we  are  thus  forced  by  the  lan- 
guage of  the  constitution,  as  illustrated  by  the  practice  of 
its  founders,  derives  additional  strength  from  every  quarter. 
The  terms  of  the  constitution  are  not  only  susceptible  of  the 
interpretation  for  which  we  contend,  but  they  do  of  them- 
selves, when  properly  collated,  compel  us  to  adopt  this  as 
their  only  consistent  meaning.      More  than  one  instance 
occurs  in  our  Form  of  Government,  in  which  the  terms  Pres- 
bytery, and  member  of  the  Presbytery  are  used,  where  it  is 
apparent  that  ministers  only  are  meant,  the  duties  being 
such  as  could  be  properly  discharged  only  by  them.     Now 
we  maintain  that  in  the  ordination  service  itself,  there  is 
evidence  that  the  whole  ceremonial  part  of  the  ordination 
was  judged  to  be  a  work  which  could  be  fitly  performed 
only  by  ministers.     This  is  sufficiently  clear  from  the  direc- 
tion given  that  "  the  minister  who  presides  shall  first,  and 
afterward  all  the  other  members  of  the  Presbytery  in  their 
order,  take  him  by  the  right  hand,  saying,  in  words  to  this 
purpose.  We  give  you  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  take 
part  of  this  ministry  with  us."     Here  the  language,  all  the 
other  members  of  the  Presbytery,  is  express  and  peremptory, 
and  yet  it  is  obviously  limited  to  those  members  who  have 
already  partaken  of  the  ministry  to  which  the  candidate  is 
ordained.     Dr.  Breckinridge  indeed  asserts  that  this  argu- 
ment is  a  sophism,  which  chiefly  rests  on  an  error  of  fact ; 
and  the  error  of  fact  which  he   elaborately  overthrows 
consists    in    an   alleged    misapprehension    of    the    word 
ministry,  which  restricts  it  to  the  ministry  of  the  word. 
He  succeeds   in  proving   what  no  one   has  ever  denied, 
that  the  word  ministry,  in  its  etymological  sense,  means 
service,  and  minister  a  servant ;  but  he  has  not  succeeded 
in  finding  a  single  instance  in  our  form  of  goverimient  where 


13 

these  words  are  employed  to  denote  any  other  kind  of  ser- 
vice than  that  which  is  discharged  by  preaching  elders. 
And  if  he  had  found  any  number  of  such  instances,  this 
sophism,  as  he  is  pleased  to  call  it,  would  still  remain  a 
strong  and  impregnable  argument  in  the  judgment  of  all 
who  can  rightly  appreciate  the  meaning  of  words.  As  if  to 
forestal  the  very  objection  raised,  this  salutation  defines 
with  the  utmost  precision  the  kind  of  ministry,  or  service 
intended.  They  who  take  the  newly  ordained  minister  by 
the  hand,  receive  him  not  to  the  ministry,  but  to  this  min- 
istry. What  ministry  ?  Beyond  all  dispute,  that  to  which 
the  candidate  is  receiving  his  ordination,  and  which  they 
who  take  him  by  the  hand  share  with  him.  And  is  this  the 
ministry  of  rule  over  the  church,  or  the  higher  ministry  in- 
clusive of  the  other,  of  preaching  the  word  and  adminis- 
tering the  sacraments  ?  When,  as  has  not  unfrequently  oc- 
curred, a  ruling  elder  has  been  ordained,  as  a  preacher,  to 
what  ministry  did  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  welcome 
him  ?  The  theory  of  Dr.  Breckinridge  would  demand  that 
ill  this  case  there  should  be  no  second  ordination  ;  and  the- 
contrary  judgment  of  our  constitution  shows  conclusively 
that  whatever  may  be  in  other  respects  the  merits  of  his 
system,  it  is  not  the  presbyterianism  of  our  standards. 
When  one  who  is  already  a  ruling  elder  is  ordained  to  the 
ministry  of  the  word,  with  what  propriety  can  an  elder  of 
the  Presbytery,  welcome  him  "  to  take  part  of  this  ministry 
with  us  ?"  It  is  clear  that  these  words  limit  the  perform- 
ance of  this  act  to  the  preaching  members  of  the  Presbytery  ; 
and  it  is  equally  clear  that  it  was  intended  that  they  who 
welcome  the  newly  ordained  minister  to  his  office  should 
be  they  who  induct  him  into  it. 

In  reply  to  the  question,  why  the  unrestricted  language, 
laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presbytery,  is  employed,  if 
it  was  intended  that  it  should  be  limited  to  preaching  elders, 
we  answer  that  it  was  doubtless  for  the  same  reason  that 
when  it  is  said  that  "  a  member  of  the  Presbytery"  shall 
preach  a  sermon,  it  was  not  deemed  necessary  to  qualify 
the  designation  of  the  person  any  farther  than  was  done  by- 
the  nature  of  the  duty  assigned.  There  never  was  a  Chris- 
tian church  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  excepting  the  Ana- 
baptists, the  Brownists,  and  such  like,  which  did  not  or- 
dain its  preachers  by  the  hands  of  those  who  were  them- 
selves preachers.  There  is  no  account  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment of  an  ordination  that  was  not  performed  by  those  who 
were  themselves  possessed  of  the  office  conferred.  It  was 
thus  that  all  ordinations  had  been  performed  in  the  Presby- 


14 

terian  church  of  our  own  country,  prior  to  the  adoption  of 
our  present  constitution.  The  Form  of  Government  pre- 
viously recognised  as  authority  in  the  church,  that  drawn 
up  by  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines  and  adopted 
by  the  Church  of  Scotland,  expressly  limits  the  imposition 
of  hands  to  the  preaching  elders,  and  yet  it  speaks  familiar- 
ly elsewhere  of  ordination  as  performed  by  the  Presbytery, 
the  whole  Presbytery,  and  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands 
of  the  Presbytery.  It  was  to  have  been  expected  that,  in 
settling  a  Form  of  Government  in  opposition  to  one  that 
had  previously  prevailed,  the  Westminster  Assembly  would 
be  precise  and  full  in  their  exposition  of  the  minor  details 
of  the  organization  established  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  it 
was  not  to  be  expected  that  in  drawing  up  our  briefer  di- 
rectory, its  authors  would  be  equally  careful  to  define  words 
and  phrases  which  had  been  settled  in  their  meaning  and 
usage  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  At  the  time  that  our 
standards  were  framed  there  was  no  doubt  as  to  who  ought 
to  lay  on  hands  in  ordination.  There  never  had  been  any 
question  respecting  this  matter.  It  was  altogether  natural, 
therefore,  that  in  compiling  the  rule  for  ordination,  the  au- 
thors of  it  should  quote  the  scriptural  phrase,  "laying  on  of 
the  hands  of  the  Presbytery,"  without  dreaming  of  the 
necessity  of  imposing  a  limit  upon  the  general  term  Pres- 
bytery, which  had  been  already  affixed  to  it  by  the  univer- 
sal consent  of  the  church  in  all  ages,  and  by  the  unbroken 
and  unquestioned  practice  of  our  own  church  in  particular. 
And  had  the  danger  of  misapprehension  occurred  to  them, 
they  doubtless  would  have  supposed  that  they  had  suffi- 
ciently guarded  against  it,  by  the  direction  subsequently 
given  that  "  all  the  members  of  the  Presbytery  in  their 
order"  shall  utter  certain  words,  which  words  wonld  be 
perfect  nonsense  coming  from  the  mouth  of  any  other  than 
a  preaching  elder.  If  the  ministry  to  which  the  preacher  is 
ordained  is  a  difierent  ministry  from  that  exercised  by  the 
ruling  elder,  then  it  is  evident  that  "  the  Presbytery,"  and 
"  all  the  members  of  the  Presbytery"  refer  exclusively  to 
preaching  elders. 

This  is  the  law  of  our  book,  consistent  with  itself,  with 
the  practice  of  the  church,  with  right  reason,  with  scriptural 
authority,  and  with  universal  custom.  Not  one  instance 
has  been  produced,  from  apostolic  example  or  from  the 
history  of  any  Presbyterian  church  that  has  ever  existed, 
in  which  a  man  was  ordained  to  the  office  of  a  preacher, 
by  the  imposition  of  the  hands  of  those  who  were  not  them- 
selves preachers.     It  has  always  been  recognised  as  fitting 


15 

and  right,  that  the  distinction  which  exists  between  the 
teacher  and  the  ruler  should  be  made  apparent  in  the  act 
of  ordination ;  and  it  will  accordingly  be  found  that  they 
who  have  undertaken  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  the 
defence  of  the  ruling  elders,  plead  for  their  participation  in 
the  act  of  ordination  upon  principles  that  are  utterly  sub- 
versive of  the  true  distinction  between  the  preaching  and 
the  ruling  elder. 

We  do  not  enter  at  present  more  particularly  into  the 
argument  founded  upon  the  use  of  the  term  presbyter  in 
the  New  Testament ;  for  this  argument  so  far  as  it  has  any 
bearing  upon  the  question  under  discussion  has  no  force 
except  as  it  tends  to  obliterate  all  distinction  between  the 
two  classes  of  elders.  The  same  reasoning  which  proves 
that  ruling  elders  ought  to  impose  hands  in  ordination, 
proves  also  that  they  ought  to  teach.  The  ruling  elder,  it 
is  contended  is  a  scriptural  presbyter,  a  scriptural  bishop, 
and  as  presbyters  and  bishops  ordain,  by  the  impositon  of 
hands,  therefore  ruling  elders  must  impose  hands.  So  also 
the  scriptural  presbyter  or  bishop  must  be  apt  to  teach; 
they  that  had  the  rule  over  the  church  were  also  they  who 
spoke  unto  them  the  word  of  God.  It  is  easy  therefore,  by 
the  change  of  the  middle  term  of  the  above  syllogism,  to 
construct  one  which  would  prove  that  it  was  one  of  the 
functions  of  the  ruling  elder  to  preach  the  word.  When 
they  who  are  now  seeking  their  ends  through  the  distortion 
of  our  standards,  shall  seek  to  change  the  standards  them- 
selves upon  the  ground  that  they  are  not  consistent  with 
scriptural  teaching,  we  shall  be  ready  to  enter  with  all  mi- 
nuteness into  this  discussion.  In  the  mean  time  the  single 
question  before  us  now  is,  what  is  the  presbyterianism  of 
our  constitution  ?  And  the  language  of  the  instrument  it- 
self, interpreted  by  the  collation  of  one  part  with  another, 
and  illustrated  by  other  formularies  from  which  it  was  com- 
piled, and  by  the  undoubted  practice  of  its  founders,  leaves 
no  room  for  doubt  in  an  unprejudiced  mind,  that  it  was  not 
within  the  intent  of  the  rule  upon  that  subject,  that  ruling 
elders  should  unite  in  the  imposition  of  hands  in  the  ordina- 
tion of  ministers. 

Dr.  Breckinridge  has  attempted  to  invalidate  the  histori- 
cal argument,  drawn  from  the  practice  of  other  churches, 
and  this,  as  might  have  been  expected,  is  much  the  weakest 
part  of  his  essay.  He  who  sets  out  to  find  in  history  that 
which  never  existed,  is  very  apt  to  lose  his  way.  Dr.  Breck- 
inridge, "  the  course  of  whose  studies,"  as  he  informs  us, 
"  has  not  left  him  ignorant  of  the  sentiments  of  God's  pebple 


16 

in  past  times,"  avows  his  belief  that  the  teaching  of  other 
reformed  churches  furnishes  more  in  favour  of  his  position 
than  against  it.  How  well  he  has  sustained  this  belief,  our 
readers  may  judge  for  themselves. 

He  refers,  in  the  first  instance  to  the  Reformed  churches 
of  France  and  Geneva.  In  these  churches  he  admits  that 
ordination  was  performed  by  ministers,  but  attempts  to 
show,  by  an  argument  that  may  be  safely  left  to  do  its 
work  unhindered,  that  the  authority  of  this  example  is  in 
favour  of  the  participation  of  ruling  elders  in  this  service 
among  us. 

He  then  passes  to  what  he  terms  "  the  most  remarkable 
confession  to  which  the  Reformation  gave  birth,"  the  second 
or  latter  Helvetic  confession.  In  the  eighteenth  chapter  of 
this  confession,  which  treats  of  the  ministry  of  the  church,  it 
is  said  that "  they  who  are  chosen  shall  be  ordained  by  elders, 
with  public  prayers  and  imposition  of  hands."  But  before 
the  meaning  of  this  can  be  comprehended  it  must  be  under- 
stood who  are  meant  by  elders.  In  a  preceding  paragraph, 
after  giving  and  defining  the  terms  applied  to  the  ministers 
of  the  church  in  the  New  Testament,  it  adds,  "  licebit  ergo 
nunc  ecclesiavum  minislros  nuncupare  Episcopos,  Pres- 
byteros,  Fastores,  at  que  Doctor  es  f^  it  is  therefore  proper 
now  to  call  the  ministers  of  the  churches,  Bishops,  Presby- 
ters, Pastors,  and  Teachers.  The  term  elders  or  presbyters 
is,  therefore,  one  of  several  terms  that  may  be  appropriately 
employed  to  designate  the  ministers  of  the  church.  What 
then  were  the  peculiar  functions  of  ministers?  This  is 
made  perfecdy  apparent.  In  page  510  of  the  same  chapter, 
it  is  said:  '■'■  Data  est  omnibus  in  ecclesia  ministris  una 
et  aequalis  potestas  sive  functio,^'  to  all  ministers  of  the 
church,  one  and  the  same  power  or  function  is  given. 
And  again,  ^^officia  ministorum  sunt  varia,  quae  tamen 
plerique  ad  duo  restringunt,  in  quibus  omnia  alia  compre- 
henduntur,  ad  doctrinam  Christ i  evangelicani  ct  ad  legi- 
timam  sacramcntorum  administrationem  f'  the  duties  of 
ministers  are  various,  though  they  are  generally  restricted 
to  two,  in  which  all  the  rest  are  comprehended,  namely, 
teaching  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  Christ,  and  the  lawful 
administration  of  the  sacraments.  Through  the  whole 
chapter  it  is  apparent  that  the  ministers  of  the  church,  of 
whom  it  treats,  are  such,  and  such  only,  as  are  authorized  to 
preach  the  word,  and  administer  the  sacraments.  It  says  not 
one  word,  directly  or  indirectly,'respecting  any  other  class  of 
ministers  or  rulers.    The  existence  of  ruling  elders  is  not 


17 

once  hinted  at  throughout  the  document.  It  affii-ms  that 
ordination  shall  be  by  the  imposition  of  the  hands  of  the 
elders — that  elders  is  one  of  the  terms  appropriately  applied 
to  ministers — and  that  ministers  are  they  whose  chief  func- 
tions are  to  preach  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  Christ  and 
administer  the  sacraments.  It  must  require  optics  peculiarly 
constituted,  to  discern  in  all  this  any  evidence  in  favour  of 
the  participation  of  ruling  elders  in  the  imposition  of  hands. 
It  teaches  the  same  doctrine  that  is  found  in  the  standards 
of  our  own,  and  of  all  other  churches,  that  induction  into  the 
office  to  preach  and  administer  the  sacraments,  should  be 
performed  by  those  who  are  themselves  incumbents  of  the 
same  office. 

We  are  next  referred  to  the  second  book  of  discipline  of 
the  Scottish  church,  which  affirms  that  "  ordination  is  the 
separation  and  sanctifying  of  the  person  appointed  to  God, 
and  his  kirk,  after  he  is  well  tried  and  found  qualified,"  and 
that  "the  ceremonies  of  ordination,  are  fasting,  earnest 
prayer,  and  imposition  of  the  hands  of  the  eldership." 
"  Such,"  Dr.  Breckinridge  adds,  "  is  ordination  according  to 
the  doctrine  of  that  venerable  church  whose  standards  have 
furnished  so  large  a  portion  of  our  own ;  and  such  it  is, 
essentially  as  held  by  all  the  Reformed  churches — and  I  may 
add  by  the  primitive  and  apostolic  church."  And  this  is, 
as  we  maintain,  precisely  the  doctrine  of  our  standards. 
The  same  language  in  substance  is  employed,  and  the  same 
question  arises  here  as  in  the  interpretation  of  our  own  di- 
rectory ;  what  does  this  language  mean  ?  what  is  the  doc- 
trine taught  ?  It  sheds  less  light  upon  the  subject,  than 
upon  the  difficulties  by  which  the  reasoner  feels  himself  to 
be  environed,  when  he  attempts  to  fortify  his  interpretation 
of  an  ambiguous  phrase  by  reference  to  one  of  precisely 
equivalent  import.  "  The  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the 
Presbytery,"  and  "  the  imposition  of  the  hands  of  the  elder- 
ship," inasmuch  as  they  differ  from  each  other  only  in 
sound,  undoubtedly  mean  the  same  thing  :  but  what  is  this 
one  thing  which  they  both  mean  ?  What  was  intended  by 
the  "  hands  of  the  eldership,"  in  the  second  book  of  disci- 
pline, is  clearly  made  known  by  cotemporary  writers  who 
treat  expressly  of  the  subject.  Calderwood,  in  the  Altare 
Damascenum,  published  in  1623  says  that  the  imposition  of 
hands  "is  confined  to  pastors  or  teaching  elders  only,"  and 
expressly  justifies  the  consistency  of  this  usage  with  the  lan- 
guage of  the  directory.     Samuel  Rutherford  in  his  "  Peace- 

3 


18 

able  Plea  for  Paul's  Presbytery  in  Scotland,"  published  in 
1642,  says,  "eveiy  where,  in  the  word,  where  pastors  and 
elders  are  created,  there  they  are  ordained  by  pastors.     .     . 

.  .  Ordination  of  pastors  is  never  given  to  people  or 
believers,  or  to  ruling  elders,  but  still  to  pastors."  To  the 
same  effect  is  the  testimony  of  Alexander  Henderson,  and 
of  James  Guthrie.* 

There  is  no  room  left  for  doubt  as  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
second  Book  of  Discipline,  that  venerable  standard  which 
"  was  drawn  up  by  Andrew  Melville,  adopted  by  all  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the   kingdom,   and 
made  the  basis  of  more  numerous  and  solemn  national 
acts  than  any  other  paper,  perhaps,  of  merely  human  ori- 
gin."    This  book   teaches   the  exact  doctrine  which  we 
maintain,  that  ordination  is  to  be  performed  by  the  impo- 
sition  of  the   hands   of   the  eldership,  meaning   thereby 
preaching  elders.     We  have  thus,  not  only  the  example  of 
the  Scottish   Church,  confirming  us  by  the  conclusions  to 
which  the  ablest  men  of  the  day  arrived,  at  a  period  which 
peculiarly  called  for  a  thorough  sifting  of  the  principles  of 
church  organization  ;  but  what  is  still  more  important  in  its 
bearing  upon  the  precise  question  before  us,  we  find  that  in 
the  standards  which  are  admitted  to  "  have  furnished  a 
large  portion  of  our  own,"  the  phrase  "imposition  of  the 
hands  of  the    eldership"   had  acquired  a  settled  mean- 
ing as  early  as  the  year  1578. 

Dr.  Breckinridge  declares  that  it  seems  to  him  "  the  very 
height  of  absurdity  and  an  absolute  contempt  of  common 
sense,  for  any  one  to  contend,  that  according  to  the  princi- 
ples and  the  very  terms  of  this  instrument,  ruling  elders 
are  not  permitted  to  impose  hands  in  the  ordination  of  min- 
isters of  the  word."  And  yet,  in  the  light  of  the  authori- 
ties above  cited,  it  would  be  so  plain  an  affront  to  common 
sense  to  deny  that  the  principles  and  the  terms  of  this  in- 
strument were  intended  to  exclude  ruling  elders  from  taking 
part  in  the  act  of  ordination,  that  no  one  we  suppose  will 
henceforth  presume  to  call  it  in  question.  It  was  univer- 
sally understood  by  the  men  who  framed,  adopted,  and 
used  this  instrument,  that  it  confined  the  imposition  of 
hands  to  preaching  elders.  If  men  who  use  language  are 
not  to  be  denied  the  privilege  of  explaining  what  sense 

*  See  these  authors  cited  in  the  appendix  to  Dr.  Miller's  Sermon  on  the 
oflicc  of  the  ruling  elder,  p.  126. 


19 

they  attach  to  their  own  terms,  then  the  "  imposition  of  the 
hands  of  the  eldership,"  in  the  Book  of  Discipline  refers 
exclusively  to  preaching  elders.  It  was  in  this  sense  that 
the  church  understood  these  words ;  in  this  sense  they 
passed  into  the  Westminster  Directory,  and  into  our  own 
standards.  Through  a  period  of  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
live  years,  during  which  this  language  has  been  employed, 
in  the  rite  of  ordination,  no  doubt  has  existed  as  to  its  true 
meaning.  And  are  we  now  to  be  told  that  during  all  this 
time  the  men  who  compiled  and  used  the  church  standards 
which  have  prevailed,  did  not  understand  the  meaning  of 
their  own  words  ?  Is  a  purely  verbal  argument,  founded 
upon  nothing  higher  or  deeper  than  a  mere  jingle  of  words, 
to  be  considered  as  of  weight  in  determining  that  the  true 
intent  of  language  is  one  which  they  who  employed  that 
language,  have  disavowed  by  all  their  writings  and  in  all 
their  acts  ? 

Greater  violence  even,  than  in  the  cases  already  reviewed, 
is  needed  so  to  torture  the  standards  of  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly as  to  make  them  utter  the  desired  response.  There  is 
of  course  no  doubt  as  to  the  judgment  of  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly respecting  the  point  in  debate.  They  have  expressly 
decided  that  ordination  shall  be  "by  imposition  of  hands,  and 
prayer,  with  fasting,  by  those  preaching  presbyters  to  whom 
it  doth  belong."  They  have  made  this  matter  so  clear  that 
there  is  no  room  left  for  a  play  upon  words.  The  Directory 
for  the  ordination  of  ministers  states,  in  general  terms,  an- 
alogous to  the  language  employed  in  our  book,  that  "  the 
Presbytery,  or  the  ministers  sent  from  them  for  ordination, 
shall  solemnly  set  him  apart  to  the  office  and  work  of  the 
ministry,  by  laying  their  hands  on  him,"  but  this  is  else- 
where and  more  than  once,  limited  to  preaching  presbyters. 
"  The  preaching  presbyters  orderly  associated,  either  in 
cities  or  neighbouring  villages  are  those  to  whom  the  impo- 
sition of  hands  doth  appertain,  for  those  congregations 
within  their  bounds  respectively."  To  evade  the  force  of 
this  example.  Dr.  Breckinridge  contends  that  this  Directory 
teaches  an  entirely  different  doctrine  respecting  ordination 
from  that  which  we  maintain.  Citing  the  declaration  that 
"  every  minister  of  the  Avord  is  to  be  ordained  by  imposi- 
tition  of  hands,  and  prayer,  Avith  fasting,  by  those  preaching 
presbyters  to  whom  it  doth  belong,"  lie  asserts  that  this  re- 
quires us  to  go  much  further  than  has  yet  been  contended 
for,  for  not  only  imposition  of  hands,  but  ordination  itself 


20 

is  here  explicitly  declared  to  belong  to  preaching  presbyters ; 
and  he  adds  the  signiiicant  hint,  that  it  will  not  be  long  be- 
fore this  authority  will  be  quoted  to  prove  that  preacliing 
elders  only,  have  any  concern  with  the  whole  process  of  or- 
dination.  "■  Is  that,"  he  asks,"  the  doctrine  of  our  church." 
Again  he  quotes  the  declaration  of  the  Directory,  that  "the 
power  of  ordering  the  whole  work  of  ordination  is  in  the 
whole  Presbytery,"  with  the  subsequent  qualification  that 
"  the  preaching  presbyters     .     .     .     are  those  to  whom  the 
imposition  of  hands  doth  appertain  ;"   and  from  this  he 
infers  that  the  business  of  the  whole  Presbytery  is  onli/  to 
order  the  work  of  ordination,  and  that  it  is  the  preaching 
presbyters  who  ordain.     And  again  he  demands,  "  is  this 
our  system  ?"     We  answer,  that  the  system  of  the  West- 
minster  Directory,  according  to   the   clear  and  palpable 
meaning  of  the  instrument  itself,  is  undoubtedly  our  pre- 
cise system,  neither  more  nor  less.     The  "  ordering  of  the 
whole  work  of  ordination"  which  it  gives  to  the  whole 
Presbytery,  will  not  be  lessened  in  its  meaning  by  the  dis- 
paraging "  07i/j/"  which  Dr.  Breckinridge  has  prefixed  to 
it.     The  whole  Presbytery  are  to  order  or  to  determine 
the  entire  work,  to  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  the  can- 
didate, and  decide  whether  he  shall  be  ordained ;  but  the 
executive  acts  by  which  their  decision  is  actually  carried 
into  effect,  the  prayers,  the  exhortations,  the  imposition  of 
hands,  are  to   be  performed  by  the  preaching  presbyters. 
Such  is  the  plain  doctrine  of  this  directory,  and  such  pre- 
cisely is  the  doctrine  of  our  standards.     The  intent  of  the 
instrument  itself  is  so  clear,  that  it  needs  no  elucidation. 
If  any  confirmation  were  necessary,  it  could  be  found  abun- 
dantly in  the  debates  of  the  Assembly,  attending  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Directory  ;  and  in  contemporary  expositions  and 
defences  of  the  form  of  government  which  they  established. 
In  the  Jus  Divimcm  Ministeri  Evangelici,  or  the  divine 
Tight  of  the  gospel  ministry,  we  find  the  whole  matter  of 
ordination,  in  its  substantive  and  formal  part,  treated  at 
length.     This  work  was  published  in  1C54,  by  the  Pro- 
vincial Assembly  of  London  ;  it  was  subscribed,  Novem- 
ber 2,  1653,  in  the  name  and  by  the  appointment  of  the 
Assembly,  by  the  Moderator,  Assessors  and  Scribes,  one  of 
the  latter  of  whoiu  was  Matthew  Pool.     In  the  Xllllh 
chapter  of  this  work,  entitled,  ''  Wherein  the  fourth  asser- 
tion about   ordination  is  proved,  viz.,  that  ordination  of 
ministers  ought  to  be  by  the  laying  on  of  the  liands  of  the 
Presbytery,"  we  find  the  following  question  and  answer : 


21 

"  Question  4.  What  part  hath  the  ruhng  elder  in  ordina- 
tion. 

^^Jlnsv)er.  Supposing  that  there  is  such  an  officer  in  the 
church  (for  the  proof  of  which  we  refer  the  reader  to  our 
vindication)  we  answer,  that  the  power  of  ordering  of  the 
whole  worli  of  ordination  belongs  to  the  whole  Presbytery, 
that  is,  to  the  teaching  and  ruling  elders.  But  imposition  of 
hands  is  to  be  always  by  preaching  presbyters,  and  the 
rather  because  it  is  accompanied  with  prayer  and  exhorta- 
tion, both  before,  in,  and  after,  which  is  the  proper  work  of 
the  teaching  elder."  Here  is  the  same  phraseology  that  is 
employed  in  the  Directory,  and  its  meaning  is  placed  be- 
yond the  reach  of  cavil.  The  system  here  taught  is,  we 
repeat  it,  our  system.  The  decision  of  every  question  con- 
nected with  each  particular  case  of  ordination  is  vested  in 
the  whole  Presbytery,  and  the  formal  act  or  acts  by  which 
the  decision  is  declared  and  carried  into  effect,  is  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  teaching  elders. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  Dr.  Breckinridge  attempts  to  in- 
validate the  authority  of  the  Westminster  Directory  on  the 
ground  that  its  provisions  for  ordination  were  extemporane- 
ous, devised  confessedly  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  a  particu- 
lar crisis  and  of  course  not  adapted  to  a  different  state  of 
things.  We  prefer  quoting  his  own  words  upon  this  head, 
fearful  that  any  paraphrase  which  we  might  make  of  them 
would  necessarily  pass  with  the  reader  for  a  caricature. 
After  citing  from  the  Directory  the  passages  to  which  we 
have  already  referred,  he  adds  :  "  The  two  heads  of  Doc- 
trine and  Power  under  which  the  foregoing  statements 
occur,  are  then  thrown  together;  and  under  the  11th  and 
12th  sections  of  this  united  head  we  have  these  two  impor- 
tant propositions,  '  In  extraordinary  cases  something  ex- 
traordinary may  be  done There  is  at  this 

time,  an  extraordinary  occasion  for  a  ivay  of  ordination 
for  the  present  supply  of  ministers.^  True  enough,  sir ; 
but  it  sets  the  whole  matter  on  a  new  foundation.  Are  we 
in  a  state  of  civil  war  ?  Have  we  no  church  courts  in  Ame- 
rica as  there  was  not  one  in  England,  when  this  Directory 
was  drawn  up  ?  Do  our  fifteen  hundred  ministers,  and 
two  thousand  churches  furnish  no  present  supply  of  minis- 
ters to  constitute  a  single  Presbytery  ?"  This  has  no  mean- 
ing unless  it  be  to  disparage  the  directions,  already  quoted, 
respecting  ordination,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  framed 
to  meet  a  special  exigency,  there  being  at  that  time  no  eccle- 


22 

siastical  court,  regularly  constituted  in  England.     But  were 
there  no  courts,  with  ruling  elders  a  constituent  portion  of 
them,  in  Scotland,  to  which  no  less  than  to  England,  regard 
was  had  in  the  compilation  of  these  directions  ?     Do  they 
not  in  their  own  nature,  and  in  express  terms,  contemplate 
a  Presbytery  fully  formed  ?  It  is  true  that  this  instrument  un- 
der the  Doctrinal  joart  of  Ordination,  which  precedes  the 
Directory,  after  laying  down  ten  principles  or  rules,  among 
which  is  one  limiting  the  imposition  of  hands  to  teaching 
elders,  adds  that,  *'in  extraordinary  cases,  something  extra- 
ordinary may  be  done,  until  a  settled  order  may  be  had,  yet 
keeping  as  near  the  rule  as  possible."     It  is  evident  that 
the  rule  befitting  a  settled  order,  and  to  which,  in  the  mean 
tune,  as  near  an  approximation  as  possible  is  to  be  made,  is 
that  contained  in  the  ten  preceding  principles.     The  Direc- 
tory then  follows,  giving  minute  directions  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  this  rule  is  lo  be  carried  out  in  practice,  under  a 
settled  order  of  things.      At  the  close  of  this,  it  adds, — 
"  Thus  far  of  ordinary  rule  and  course  of  ordination,  in  the 
ordinary  way ;  that  which  concerns  the  extraordinary  way, 
requisite  to  be  now  practised,  followeth," — and  it  then  pro- 
ceeds to  explain  what  it  may  be  allowable  to  do  under  the 
present  exigency.     Had  the  restriction  of  the  imposition  of 
hands  to  teaching  elders  been  found  among  these  extraor- 
dinary things,  which  were  allowed  on  account  of  the  pre- 
sent distress,  we  should  not  of  course  cite  the  authority  of 
this   venerable   standard   in   favour   of  the   interpretation 
which  has  always  been  given  to  our  constitution.     We  are 
seeking  realities,  and  not  playing  with  the  mere  sounds  and 
shows  of  things.     The  only  two  points  that  have  any  con- 
ceivable relation  to  the  question  under  discussion  with  us, 
that  the  power  of  ordering  the  work  of  ordination  was  en- 
trusted to  the  whole  Presbytery,  and  that  the  authority  to 
execute  the  work,  when  ordered,  was  committed  exclusively 
to  teaching  elders,  are  not  alluded  to  among  the  extraordi- 
nary allowances  that  were  to  be  permitted  because  no  Pres- 
byteries "could  be  immediately  formed  up  to  their  whole 
power  and  work."     This,  on  the  contrary,  was  the  perfect 
theory  and  practice  of  ordination,  the  complete  rule,  which 
might,  in  certain  particulars,  be  varied  to  suit  the  necessities 
of  the  times,  "  until  a  settled  order  might  be  had." 

And  yet  Dr.  Breckinridge,  after  specilying  some  of  the 
allowable  departures  from  the  rule,  which  arc  all  given 
under  the  distinct  head  of  the  extraordinary  way  which  may 


23 

how  be  practised,  asks,  "  Is  it  not  equally  manifest,  that  the 
whole  Directory  contemplates  the  extraordinary  posture  of 
affairs  then  actually  existing  around  them?"  We  answer 
that  this  is  about  as  manifest,  as  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  prescribing  the  method  now  pursued  in  the 
electionof  President,contemplated  theadopting  actof  theseve- 
ral  States  and  other  provisional  measures,  which  were  neces- 
sary to  carry  the  constitution  into  operation.  No  man  can 
read  the  Directory  without  seeing  at  once,  that  upon  the 
points  under  discussion,  and  upon  all  other  matters,  except- 
ing the  few  that  are  touched  upon  in  the  appendix  upon 
"  the  extraordinary  way,"  it  contains  the  matured  and  deli- 
berate judgment  of  the  body  respecting  what  is  orderly  and 
right  under  a  perfect  state  of  the  church. 

But  in  the  third  place,  Dr.  Breckinridge  attempts  a  higher 
strain.  He  aims  not  only  to  deprive  the  positive  teaching 
of  the  Assembly  of  its  due  weight,  but  to  make  them  utter 
a  contrary  doctrine.  To  effect  this,  must  of  course  require 
peculiar  powers  of  ventriloquism.  By  a  comparison  of  dates 
he  finds  that  the  Directory  for  Church  Government  was 
sent  in  to  the  Parliament  seven  months  after  the  Directory 
for  Ordination.  Hence  he  infers  that  this  work  contains 
"  the  more  matured  decisions  of  the  body — their  advice  for 
a  permanent  and  not  for  an  extraordinary  church  state," 
He  then  selects  from  this  work  certain  general  principles  of 
church  government,  such  as,  that  the  government  of  the 
church  is  in  the  hand  of  Assemblies,  that  these  Assemblies 
are  composed  of  teaching  and  ruling  elders,  and  that  many 
congregations  are  under  this  presbyterial  government ;  and 
from  these  he  argues  that  the  Westminster  Assembly,  in  its 
matured  judgment,  by  deciding  that  ruling  elders  are  of 
divine  right  a  constituent  portion  of  the  governing  assem- 
blies of  the  church,  have  decided  "  ex  vi  termini^  that  they 
must  unite  in  ordinations."  If  by  uniting  in  ordinations, 
is  meant,  that  ruling  elders  must  have  some  share  in  the 
work,  then  all  this  talk  about  the  matured  decisions  of  the 
body,  after  seven  months  study,  is  devoid  of  meaning ;  since 
the  Assembly  had  already  decreed  in  their  immature  direc- 
tory for  ordination,  that  the  power  of  ordering  the  whole 
work  was  in  the  hands  of  teaching  and  ruling  elders.  If  it 
means  that  ruling  elders  must  unite  in  executing,  as  well 
as  ordering,  the  whole  work,  then  we  say,  that  the  Assem- 
bly have  decided  no  such  thing,  ex  vi  termini,  unless  ter- 
mini means  a  determination  to  force  upon  their  language 


24 

a  construction  which  it  was  never  intended  to  bear,  and 
which  it  does  not  legitimately  admit.     The  supposed  ad- 
vance in  knowledge  made  by  the  Westminster  Assembly 
during  the  seven  months  which  elapsed  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  directory  for  ordination,  upon  which  this  argu- 
ment rests,  is  of  course  destitute  of  the  shadow  of  a  founda- 
tion.    There  is  nothing  in  their  later  work,  which  contra- 
dicts or  supersedes  any  thing  in  the  former.     They  were 
combined  together  and  adopted  as  the  form  of  government, 
in  England  and  Scotland.     The  decision  of  the  Assembly 
that  ruling  elders  are  of  right  governors  of  the  church,  did 
not,  in  their  own  judgment  of  it,  decide  that  ruling  elders 
must  therefore  impose  hands  in  ordination.     Nor  does  it, 
ex  vi  termini,  include  this,  any  more  than  the  right  which 
every  member  of  congress  has  to  deliberate  and  vote  upon 
any  question  brought  before  them,  includes  the  right  to  join 
his  signature  to  that  of  the  speaker,  in  attestation  of  the 
bills  passed.     This  matter  is  really  too  plain  for  argument. 
The  doctrine  which  the  Westminster  Assembly  intended  to 
teach  respecting   ordination,  the  doctrine  which  they  do 
teach,  is  as  explicit  and  clear  as  it  is  within  the  compass  of 
language  to  make  it ;  and  the  alleged  inconsistency  between 
placing  the  whole  work  of  ordination  in  the  hands  of  all  the 
governors  of  the   church,  and   restricting  certain  formal 
parts  of  the  execution  of  the  work  to  one  class  of  those 
governors,  does  not  seem  to  us  worth  an  argument. 

By  the  process  which  Dr.  Breckinridge  employs  to  ex- 
tract historical  evidence  in  favour  of  his  position,  we  could 
prove  any  doctrine  or  practice  whatever.  He  first  deter- 
mines that  the  work  of  ordination  in  all  its  parts  and  pro- 
cesses, in  its  decision,  declaration,  and  attestation,  belongs 
of  necessity  to  the  governors  of  the  church.  Hence  if  the 
government  of  the  church  is  vested  in  teaching  and  ruling 
elders,  he  infers  that  ruling  elders  must  impose  hands  in  or- 
dination. In  whatever  standards  he  finds  that  the  work  of 
ordination  in  general  is  committed  to  the  governing  body 
in  the  church,  whatever  that  may  be,  he  sees  the  proof  of  his 
doctrine,  even  when  those  standards  in  other  parts  expressly 
contradict  it.  History  thus  furnishes  more  that  is  for  him 
than  against  him,  because  he  forces  upon  historical  docu- 
ments his  own  inconsequent  reasoning,  and  determines 
what  the  facts  of  history  actually  were  I'rom  his  opinion  of 
what  they  ought  to  have  been. 

The  discussion  into  which  Dr.  Breckinridge  enters  touch- 


25 

ing  tfie  influence  of  the  Westminster  standards  upon  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  has  no  relation  to  the  question  in  de- 
bate. We  have  shown  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Scottish  and 
the  Westminster  standards  respecting  ordination  was  pre- 
cisely the  same.  The  second  Book  of  Discipline,  and  the 
Westminster  Directory,  alike  place  the  power  of  ordination 
in  the  Presbytery,  and  reserve  the  imposition  of  hands  to  the 
preaching  elders.  It  is  of  no  avail  therefore  to  depreciate 
the  modern  Scottish  church  as  compared  with  the  ancient, 
seeing  that  upon  this  point  she  has  never  varied  her  doc- 
trine or  her  practice,  since  the  establishment  of  the  second 
Book  of  Discipline. 

Dr.  Breckinridge  asserts  that,  "it  would  be  easy  to  estab- 
lish the  same  doctrine  from  other  confessions— for  example, 
those  of  the  Bohemian  churches  of  1535  and  1575,  and  va- 
rious professions  of  the  Polish  and  Lithuanian  churches  of 
the  following  century."  Of  the  Bohemian  Confessions 
here  referred  to,  the  second  contains  not  one  word  respect- 
ing ordination ;  and  the  first  has  only  the  following  sen- 
tence :  "  Praeterea  vitae  consuetudinem  honestarn,  atque 
ut  hi  probentur  prius,  turn  demum  a  senioribus  facta 
precatione,  per  manuum  impositionem  ad  hoc  munus  in 
caetu  conjirmentur."  There  is  nothing  to  inform  us  who 
the  seniores  were,  except  that  throughout  the  article  in 
which  this  occurs,  entitled,  De  ordine  ecelesiastico,  sen 
praefectis  vel  ministris  ecclesiae,  there  is  not  one  word 
said  of  any  other  class  of  rulers  or  ministers  of  the  church 
than  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  preach  the  word  and  ad- 
minister the  sacraments ;  and  the  conclusion  hence  is  irre- 
sistible, that  they  were  the  seniores,  who  were  to  offer  up 
prayer  and  impose  hands,  in  setting  others  apart  to  the  same 
office. 

No  other  confession  is  specially  designated  as  lending 
aid  to  the  new  theory  ;  but  we  find,  in  the  October  number 
of  the  Spirit  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  that  Dr.  Breckin- 
ridge has  pressed  the  Belgic  confession  into  his  service. 
He  says,  "In  Art.  XXXI,  De  Vocatione  Ministrorum 
Ecclesiae,  of  the  last-named  confession,  it  is  explicitly  de- 
clared that  the  work  of  holy  ordination,  as  to  manner  and 
form,  is  prescribed  in  God's  word,  and  appertains  '  verbi 
ministris  et  senioribus  ecclesiae,''  and  that  by  it  ministers, 
elders  and  deacons  ought  to  be, '  confirmari  in  muneribus 
suis  per  impositionem  manuum.^  ^^  There  is  nothing  in 
his  article,  or  in  the  whole  confession,  which  bears  the  re- 

4 


26 

motest  resemblance  to  the  affirmation  which  Dr.  Breckin- 
ridge has  extracted  from  it.  The  first  sentence  is  as  fol- 
lows. Credimus  Ministros,  Seniores,  et  Diaconos  dehere 
ad  functiones  illas  suas  vocari  et  promoveri  legitima  ec- 
clesiae  vocatione,  adhibita  ad  earn  seria  Dei  invocatione, 
atque  adhibitis  ecclesiae  svffragiis,  ac  postea  confirmari 
in  'muneribus  suis  per  impositionern  manuum.  eo  ordine 
et  modo,  qui  nobis  in  Verbo  Dei  prescribitur.  The  only 
other  sentence  in  which  the  word  seniores  occurs,  is  that 
from  which  Dr.  Breckinridge  has  excerpted  the  phrase,  t?er6i 
mitiisiris  et  seniorihus  ecclesiae.  Porro  ne  saticta  haec 
Dei  ordinatio,  ant  violetur  aut  aheat  in  contemptvm,  de- 
bent  omnes  de  verbi  ministris  et  seniorihus  ecclesiae  propter 
opus  cici  ificumbimt,  honorifice  sentire  :  That  this  holy  or- 
dination of  God  tnay  not  benndervahied  or  contemned,  all 
Tnen  ought  to  esteem  highly  the  Tninisters  of  the  word  and 
the  elders  of  the  church,  on  account  of  the  work  to  which 
they  apply  thetnselves.  By  what  curious  process  this  has 
been  transformed  into  an  explicit  declaration,  that  ordina- 
tion appertains  to  the  ministers  of  the  word  and  the  elders 
or  the  church,  we  leave  the  reader  to  surmise.  After  this 
exposition  of  the  manner  in  which  Dr.  Breckinridge  has 
dealt  with  the  historical  documents  which  he  has  underta- 
ken to  expound,  we  need  not  fear  to  leave  his  assertion, 
that  he  could  easily  sustain  his  position  from  certain  other 
Polish  and  Lithuanian  confessions,  to  be  rated  at  its  just 
weight. 

The  attempt  to  extract  aught  from  history  in  favour  of 
the  innovation  urged  upon  us,  is  a  signal  failure.  It  re- 
mains a  fact,  to  which  nothing  contrary  has  been  shown, 
that  through  all  time,  in  all  countries,  and  by  all  Christian 
churches,  the  ordination  of  ministers  has  ever  been  ratified 
and  attested  by  the  imposition  of  the  hands  of  ministers. 
The  Presbyterian  churches  of  England  and  Scotland,  from 
whose  formularies  ours  have  been  compiled,  practised  no 
other  mode  of  ordination.  Our  fathers,  who  drew  up  our 
constitution,  knew  of  no  other;  and  the  constitution  itself,  ac- 
cording to  the  only  consistent  interpretation  which  can  be 
given  to  its  language,  admits  of  no  other. 

In  maintaining  what  has  always  been  believed  to  be  the 
doctrine  of  our  standards,  we  have  not  felt  it  necessary  to 
interpolate  any  professions  of  our  sense  of  the  importance 
of  the  office  of  ruling  elder,  or  of  high  regard  for  the  in- 
telligence and  worth  of  the  present  incumbents  of  this 


S7 

office  in  our  church.  We  feel  that  we  shall  best  manifest 
our  true  respect  for  the  heads  and  hearts  of  the  body  of  our 
elders  by  believing  them  to  be  inaccessible  to  the  arguments 
and  motives  addressed  to  them,  by  some  of  those  who  claim 
to  be  their  peculiar  friends. 

We  have  but  little  to  say  in  reply  to  Dr.  Breckinridge's 
argument  in  opposition  to  the  decision  of  the  last  Assembly 
respecting  the  constitutional  quorum  of  a  Presbytery.* 
The  constitution  of  the  church  declares,  that  "  Any  three 
ministers,  and  as  many  elders  as  may  be  present  belonging 
to  the  Presbytery,  being  met  at  the  time  and  place  ap- 
pointed, shall  be  a  quorum  competent  to  proceed  to  busi- 
ness." The  decision  of  the  last  Assembly  was,  "  That  any 
three  ministers  of  a  Presbytery,  being  regularly  convened, 
are  a  quorum  competent  to  the  transaction  of  all  business;" 
and  it  is  alleged  that  this  decision  is  in  direct  conflict  with 
the  constitutional  provision. 

It  is  argued,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  language  of  the 
book  implies  that  at  least  one  ruling  elder  must  be  present 
to  constitute  a  quorum;  since  as  "many  elders  as  may  be 
present"  can  never  be  construed  to  mean  no  elders.  But 
the  advantage  of  the  argument  from  the  apparent  meaning 
of  the  terms  in  which  the  rule  is  expressed,  is  clearly  in 
favour  of  the  construction  given  by  the  last  Assembly. 
«  As  many  elders  as  may  be  present  belonging  to  the  Pres- 
bytery," is  a  contingent  expression,  which  leaves  the  num- 
ber of  elders  unlimited  in  either  direction,  except  by 
their  right  to  sit  in  that  body.  All  belonging  to  it  may  be 
present,  which  is  the  limit,  in  one  direction ;  and  none  may 
be  present,  which  is  the  limit,  in  the  other  direction ;  and 
in  either  case,  if  three  ministers  are  present,  there  is 
a  quorum  of  the  body.  The  quorum  shall  not  be  hindered 
by  the  voluntary  absence  of  all  the  elders  in  the  one  case  ; 
nor  by  their  outnumbering  the  ministers  in  the  other.  This 
is  the  apparent  intent  of  the  rule ;  it  is  the  natural,  un- 
forced meaning  of  its  terms.  In  defining  the  quorum,  it 
makes  it  to  consist  of  two  parts,  one  constant  and  the  other 
variable ;  and  the  variable  element  may  evidently  vary 
from  nothing  to  the  entire  number,  who  may  lawfully  be 
present.     This  is  to  us,  the  obvious  construction  of  the  rule  ; 

*  This  question  has  been  so  largely  discussed  through  the  press,  that  it  is  the 
less  necessaiy  to  enter  into  at  length.  Dr.  Maclean,  in  a  number  of  essays  in 
the  Presbyterian,  has  examined  in  detail,  and  refuted  every  position  taken  by 
Dr.  Breckinridge. 


28 

and  we  are  confirmed  in  it,  because  with  this  construction 
we  can  see  a  reason  why  the  language  used  was  selected, 
but  none  at  all,  if  it  was  intended  to  express,  that  at  least, 
one  elder  must  be  present.  The  language,  as  it  now  stands, 
leaves  the  number  of  elders  to  vary  from  zero  upwards ;  if 
it  had  been  intended  to  fix  unity  as  the  lower  limit,  it 
would  have  been  altogether  easy  and  natural  to  have  ex- 
pressed this  intent.  The  rule  could  have  been  stated  so  as 
to  express  this  with  absolute  precision,  in  as  few  or  fewer 
terms  than  it  now  contains.  That  the  purpose  of  the  rule 
was  as  construed  by  the  Assembly  is  further  apparent  from 
the  practice  under  it.  Abundant  evidence,  such  as  cannot 
be  called  into  dispute,  has  been  furnished  from  the  records 
of  our  Presbyteries,  that  meetings  have  been  held  and  busi- 
ness transacted,  without  the  presence  of  any  ruling  elder. 
But  few  such  meetings  can  occur  now  in  our  old  Presby- 
teries. The  facilities  for  attendance  upon  their  meetings  are 
such  that  in  all  ordinary  cases  one  or  more  ruling  elders  will 
be  present.  The  practical  interests  involved  in  the  settle- 
ment of  this  question,  which  are  magnified  by  Dr.  Breckin- 
ridge into  the  wide  difference  "  between  an  aristocratical 
hierarchy  and  a  free  Christian  commonwealth,"  are  literally 
nothing  at  all ;  except  that  for  our  frontier  settlements,  and 
for  missionaries  in  foreign  lands,  the  received  construction 
of  the  rule  might  often  be  convenient  and  sometimes  neces- 
sary, to  enable  them  to  obtain  a  meeting  of  the  Presbytery. 
If  a  change  in  the  rule  were  sought,  in  the  mode  prescribed 
by  the  constitution,  except  for  the  cases  named,  we  do  not 
suppose  that  much,  if  any,  practical  inconvenience  would 
result  from  making  it.  But  if  the  change  is  demanded  on 
such  grounds  as  are  urged  in  opposition  to  the  Assembly's 
decision,  and  if  made,  is  to  be  considered  as  sanctioning  the 
principles  contended  for,  then  the  question  before  us  is 
nothing  less  than  a  radical  revolution  in  our  whole  system. 
The  free  Christian  commonwealth  of  Dr.  Breckinridge 
is  nothing  else  than  parochial  presbyterianism — the  go- 
vernor or  ruling  elder  of  the  church  being  the  chief  offi- 
cer, the  only  one  requiring  ordination,  who  may  also  be 
designated  and  employed  as  a  teacher,  if  in  addition  to  his 
gifts  for  ruling,  he  be  judged  to  possess  also  the  gift  of 
teaching, — and  the  bench  of  ruling  elders  of  each  particular 
church  being  fully  empowered  to  license,  ordain,  and  trans- 
act all  other  business  that  a  Presbytery  may  lawfully  do. 
Tliis  is  a  distinct  and  intelligible  system.     It  is  that  to  which 


29 

all  the  distinctive  principles  advocated  by  Dr.  Breckinridge 
plainly  lead.  But  it  is  not  our  system;  and  the  church,  we 
trust,  will  pause  and  deliberate  long  before  she  will  be 
ready  to  adopt  it. 

The  necessary  presence  of  ruling  elders  to  constitute  a 
quorum  is  argued,  in  the  second  place,  from  the  definition 
of  a  Presbytery,  which  makes  it  to  consist  both  of  minis- 
ters and  ruling  elders.  Ruling  elders  are,  therefore,  held 
an  essential  element,  not  only  of  a  Presbytery,  but  of  a  le- 
gal quorum  of  Presbytery.  The  only  force  of  the  reason- 
ing under  this  head,  resides  in  the  confusion  of  these  two 
perfectly  distinct  things.  If  a  meeting  of  Presbytery  could 
be  held  under  the  compulsory  exclusion  of  ruling  elders 
commissioned  to  attend,  if  the  received  construction  of  the 
rule  involved  this,  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  it  would  be 
in  conflict  with  the  principles  of  our  constitution.  And  it 
will  be  found  that  every  plausible  argument  upon  the  other 
side,  and  all  the  fanfaronade  about  hierarchy,  and  freedom, 
and  priestly  usurpation,  are  founded  upon  the  quiet  assump- 
tion that  such  is  the  effect  of  the  interpretation  given  to  this 
rule.  Ruling  elders,  if  there  be  any  within  the  district 
covered  by  the  Presbytery,  constitute  a  portion  of  that  body, 
and  no  lawful  meeting  can  be  held,  no  business  of  what- 
ever kind  transacted,  without  an  opportunity  afforded,  to 
all  who  may  lawfully  partake  in  its  deliberations  and  acts, 
to  be  present  and  assist ;  but  if  they  choose  voluntarily  to 
absent  themselves,  then,  that  the  business  of  the  church  may 
not  suffer  through  their  absence,  it  is  provided  that  the 
ministers  who  may  be  assembled  may  proceed  to  business 
without  them.  It  will  be  perceived  at  once  that  there  is 
here  no  restraint  imposed,  no  subjection  established,  and,  of 
course,  no  power  bestowed.  Ruling  elders,  one  from  each 
congregation,  have  a  right  to  be  present  at  every  meeting 
of  the  presbytery.  That  right  is  left  untouched.  And  this 
is  a  hierarchy  !  These  are  slight  materials  out  of  which  to 
compose  the  horrid  picture  of  the  church,  subjected  to  the 
rule  of  "  three  ministers  without  charge,  who,  it  may  be, 
have  forsaken  their  covenanted  calling." 

If  it  could  be  shown  that  there  was  anything  in  our  book, 
in  the  nature  of  the  case,  or  in  reason,  requiring  that  the 
quorum  of  a  body,  which,  when  fully  formed,  was  com- 
posed of  different  classes,  must  of  necessity  embrace  some 
members  of  all  those  classes,  the  question  would  be  decided 
that  our  rule  ought  to  have  been  made  to  mean  what  Dr. 


30 

Breckinridge  maintains  that  it  does  mean.  But  this  has 
not  been  shown.  On  the  contrar^'^,  oar  book,  in  providing 
for  the  action  of  a  chuch  session  when  no  minister  may  be 
present,  and  for  a  quornm  of  the  General  x^ssembly  when 
no  ruling  elders  may  be  present,  distinctly  sanctions  the 
principle,  that  a  quorum  of  a  body  composed  of  two  classes 
may  be  formed  entirely  of  one  of  those  classes.  The  ex- 
pediency of  the  case  furnishes  no  argument  against  our  in- 
terpretation, inasmuch  as  there  never  have  been  any  diverse 
interests  betweeen  the  ministers  and  elders  of  our  church, 
nor  is  it  easy  to  conceive  how  any  such  can  legitimately 
arise.  They  are  not  adverse  parties,  nor  is  there  anything 
in  the  practical  working  of  our  system  which  could  ever 
make  them  so.  And  if  this  were  not  so,  if  they  were  an- 
tagonistic parties,  the  quorum  rule  would  still  be  harmless, 
as  the  elders  would,  in  that  case,  take  care  to  exercise  the 
privilege  which  they  possess  of  being  always  present,  and 
thus  prevent  their  priestly  adversaries  from  taking  advan- 
tage over  them.  It  has  also  been  shown,  that  in  the  com- 
mon judgment  of  men,  as  manifested  in  the  constitution  and 
rules  of  other  analogous  bodies,  it  has  never  deemed 
essential  to  the  constitution  of  a  quorum  that  it  should  em- 
brace some  of  all  the  classes  represented  in  the  body  ;  as  in 
the  English  House  of  Lords,  which  can  transact  business 
in  the  absence  of  all  the  spiritual  Lords. 

In  the  last  place,  it  is  argued  that  the  authority  of  pre- 
cedent is  opposed  to  the  authorized  interpretation  of  the 
quorum  rule.  Dr.  Breckinridge  quotes  under  this  head  the 
authority  of  Steuart  of  Pardovan,  who  declares  that  nei- 
ther the  constitution  of  the  church  nor  the  law  of  the  land, 
"  do  authorize  any  other  ecclesiastical  judicatory  but  As- 
semblies, Synods,  Presbyteries,  and  Kirk  Sessions,  or  their 
committees,  consisting  of  ministers  and  ruling  elders."  It 
will  be  seen  at  once  that  this  does  not  touch  the  question 
in  debate.  This,  and  all  the  other  authorities  cited  by  Dr. 
Breckinridge  refer  onlj''  to  the  proper  constitution  of  church 
courts,  and  we  are  all  agreed  that  these  must  be  composed 
of  ministers  and  ruling  elders.  They  affirm  nothing 
respecting  the  formation  of  a  quorum  of  these  courts.  This 
is  apparent  from  the  language  itself;  and  it  is  placed  beyond 
all  doubt  by  the  fact  that  Steuart  himself  quotes  from  the 
Directory,  "  That  to  perform  any  classical  act  of  govern- 
ment or  ordination,  there  nuist  be  present,  at  least,  a  major 
part  of  the  ministers  of  the  whole  classis."     So  that  the 


31 

quorum  of  a  classis,  or  Presbytery  of  the  Scottish  church 
did  not  require  the  presence  of  any  ruHng  elders.  This  fal- 
lacy of  confounding  the  composition  of  a  body  with  the 
quorum  of  that  body,  runs  through  the  whole  of  Dr.  Breck- 
inridge's historical  argument,  and  vitiates  every  one  of  his 
conckisions.  A  proper  regard  to  this  distinction  rescues 
from  him  every  instance  which  he  has  adduced,  excepting 
that  of  the  condemnation,  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
I6188,  of  six  preceding  Assemblies.  And  every  one  ac- 
quainted with  the  rudiments  of  the  ecclesiastical  history 
of  Scotland  knows  that  the  grounds  of  this  condemnation 
were  utterly  wide  of  the  question  which  we  are  discussing. 
It  was  not  because  there  were  no  ruling  elders  present  in 
those  Assemblies  that  they  were  set  aside,  but  because  there 
were  elders  present  and  voting,  who  had  no  lawful  com- 
missions. This  case  is  too  irrelevant  to  waste  words  upon. 
If  anything  can  be  established  by  testimony,  it  is  clear  that 
the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  Scottish  church  are  in  agree- 
ment with  the  decision  of  our  last  Assembly.  In  addition 
to  other  authorities  which  have  been  abundantly  given  to 
this  effect,  we  refer  to  the  correspondence  of  Robert  Wodrow, 
the  celebrated  historian  of  the  kirk,  Vol.  I.  p.  181.  lu  a 
letter,  dated  Nov.  29,  1710,  we  find  the  following  passage. 
"  Thirdly,  The  rule  of  the  church,  though  elders  have  a 
share  in  it,  is  principally  committed  to  pastors.  The 
keys  of  the  kingdom  are  given  to  them.  They  are 
such  as  rule  over  the  people,  and  speak  the  word,  Heb.  xiii. 
7,  and  watch  for  souls  as  they  that  must  give  account,  ver. 
17;  none  of  which  places  to  me  have  any  relation  to  the 
ruling  elder;  and  therefore  they  can  act  in  absence  or 
under  the  want  of  elders,  though  I  cannot  see  how  elders 
can  act  without  pastors." 

We  have  thus  in  favour  of  the  Assembly's  decision,  the 
obvious  meaning  ofthe  language  of  the  rule  ;  the  sanction 
by  our  book,  of  the  principle  involved,  by  its  provision 
for  the  action  of  a  church  session,  and  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, in  the  entire  absence  of  one  of  the  classes  that  com- 
pose these  courts  ;the  practice  of  our  own  church  in  times  past; 
the  concurrent  practice  of  the  Scottich  church ;  and  the 
analogies  of  other  bodies  constituted  in  like  manner.  We 
have  opposed  to  it,  certain  abstract  notions  about  the  rights  of 
ruling  elders,  which,  if  fairly  carried  out,  are  destructive  of 
our  whole  system  ;  and  certain  exaggerated  fears  about  the 
establishment  of  a  hierarchy,  by  means  of  a  harmless  rule 


32 

of  convenience,  which,  restraining  no  right,  confers  no  power. 
We  cannot  doubt  that  the  next  Assembly  will,  if  need  be, 
affirm  the  decisions  of  the  last.  There  are  some  thmgs 
which  the  church  ought  to  be  presumed  to  know,  and  among 
these  surely  should  be  numbered  her  first  principles  of  truth 
and  order. 


A  DISCOURSE 


OH 


THE  ORiaiisr 


ANt> 


INCREASE  OFDEYILS, 


ON  ALL  PAETS  OF  EAKTII, 


BY  ELDER  J.  P.  NEVILL. 


RICHMOND: 

WILLIAM   H.    CLEMMITT,    PRINTER,   MAIN  SIREEj. 

1856. 


DISCOURSE. 


"  And  I  saw  an  angel  come  down  from  heaven,  having  the  key  of  the  bottom- 
less pit,  and  a  great  chain  in  his  hand;  and  he  laid  hold  on  the  dragon^ 
that  old  serpent,  which  is  the  devil,  and  Satan,  and  bound  him  a  thousand 
years." — Rev.  xx:  1,2. 


My  Christian  Friends  : 

We  have  read  this  portion  of  the 
divine  testimony  from  the  twentieth  chapter  of  the  hook  of 
Revelation,  for  the  purpose  of  inviting  your  attention  on 
this  lovely  Lord's  day  morning,  to  the  origin  of  the  devil, 
called  the  old  serpent — the  mystery  of  all  past  ages,  and 
the  wonder  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

No  subject,  perhaps  in  all  past  time,  has  been  more 
abused  by  religionists  than  the  one  now  under  investigation. 
Who  has  asked  for  permission  to  slander  and  misrepresent 
this  aged  and  wonderful  thing  called  the  dragon?  No 
one.  The  most  of  men  suppose  they  possess  the  right  to 
say  what  they  please  of  the  devil.  Yes,  even  some  religion- 
ists suppose  they  have  this  right  vouclisafed  to  them  and 
their  children,  by  the  God  of  all  truth  and  grace.  Did  any 
one  of  you  ever  know  any  one  reproved  by  men  for  abusing 
the  poor  old  devil?  No,  you  never  did.  But  in  this,  none 
regard  age  or  anything  besides.  But  all  stand  in  readiness 
to  charge  home  on  him  their  numerous  sayings  and  doings. 
But  in  my  opinion,  weak  as  it  may  be,  a  little  fib  is  the 
same,  whether  told  on  man,  angel,  or  devil ;  or  even  on  the 
smallest  bird  of  this  mundane  of  singers.  It  is  the  same 
— a  fib.     Many  persons,  as  we  suppose,  have  been  rained 


4  DISCOURSE. 

for  all  time — have  lied  all  of  the  way  to  the  tomh,  from 
having  been  permitted  to  saddle  the  old  horse,  the  devil, 
with  their  first  and  youthful  tricks  and  lies.  Just  permit 
a  child  to  tell  a  lie  to-day,  and  charge  it  to  the  devil,  and 
peradventure  on  the  next  day,  he  will  have  one  to  tell  on 
one  of  Eve's  family  ! 

"Mothers,  do  not,  I  beseech  you  this  day,  permit  j'our 
children  to  lie  on  the  devil,  lest  they  turn  on  you  and  rend 
you,"  said  an  aged  man  not  long  since,  in  the  region  of 
Pleasant  Grove  meeting-house.  "■  Let  us  all  deal  honestly 
with  the  devil,  for,"  said  he,  "we  do  not  know  whose  hands 
we  are  to  foil  into,  for/'  said  he,  "  the  devil  is  b}^  no  means 
a  iorgetful  hearer."  Think  of  this  old  man's  words,  for 
they  will  do  you  no  harm,  if  they  do  you  no  good. 

What  I  am  about  to  say  in  this  discourse  about  the  devil, 
I  do  not  wish  you  to  understand  as  being  the  views  of  the 
Church  of  Christ.,  so  called,  but  tlie  notions  of  the  sj)eaker, 
and  who  takes  great  pleasure  in  saviuijj  to  vou  all,  that  vou 
are  at  liberty  to  receive  or  reject  all,  or  any  jiart  of  what 
I  may  say  to-day  of  the  niaii  of  sin, — that  great  big  i)uzzle 
fool  of  the  age  in  which  we  live.  We  hope,  however,  that 
the  dragon  of  former  times  will  not  be  offended  witli  us 
for  this  unscriptural  appellation  of  himself  And  now, 
having  been  so  liberal  with  you,  ray  respected  congregation, 
as  regards  the  reception  of  these  my  remarks  on  the  old 
*'swine-choaker  of  the  country  of  the  Gadarenes,"  we  most 
confidently  expect  you  to  hear  us  patiently,  as  novel  as  the 
subject  may  appear  at  first  view. 

My  friends,  but  few  of  us,  comparatively  speaking,  have 
altogether  recovered  from  the  superstitious  flashes  of  primi- 
tive days  and  nights — when  it  was  expected  of  all  to  keep 
a  sharp  look  out  for  ghosts,  hobgoblins,  witches,  and  devils. 
The  children  of  those  early  days  and  ghostly  nights  were, 
by  nature,  superstitious.  A  poor  gift,  indeed,  and  yet  it 
has  lived  through  all  of  the  revolutions  of  the  ])ast.  Yes, 
it  lives  to-duy.  See  it  in  yonder  church.  See  it  in  the  par- 
lor of  yonder  wealthy  nabob.  Yes,  even  behold  it  in  the 
actions  of  the  learned  of  the  age.     And  do  yon  not  read  it 


DISCOURSE.  0 

in  the  very  countenance  of  hira  who  stands  in  the  rostrnra  ? 
May  I  be  permitted  to  relate  to  you  this  quite  ridiculous 
little  harangue,  which  is  said  to  have  been  played  off  on 
the  community  by  quite  a  number  of  religious  people,  show- 
ing that  they  had  not  departed  with  the  parents'  iuheri- 
ance — superstition  : 

"O  shout!  shout!  shout! 
The  devil  is  about ! 

Shut  the   door. 
And  keep  him  out!" 

Now,  in  this  case,  we  suppose  that  the  devil  was  about 
Yes,  perhaps  he  was  in  the  harangue,  and  shutting  the 
door  was  the  means  of  keeping  hira  in  the  house,  and  not 
out  of  it.  But,  if  tlie  devil  was  about,  as  stated  in  tlie 
harangue,  how  did  those  good,  shouting  people  know  it? 
Inasmuch  as  he  is  invisible,  they  must  have  felt  him,  and 
he  was  doubtless  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  gave  the  alarm, 
and  wished  the  door  shut.  It  is  impossible,  as  I  suppose,  to 
see  the  devil  separate  and  apai't  from  some  person  or  ani- 
mal. The  devil  works  by  means,  and  not  without  them. 
He  operates  on  man  by  man,  or,  through  some  human  in- 
strumentality or  agency  of  some  kind.  The  devil  has  al- 
ways been  fond  of  company  ;  he  is  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  human  family  ;  he  keeps  the  company  of  many 
of  both  sexes,  but  doubtless  prefers  the  company  of  the 
ladies.  Such  was  the  case  with  him  when  young,  as  will 
appear  by  reading  the  first  part  of  the  Old  Testament  scrip- 
tures. 

The  races  of  men  have,  from  time  immemorial,  met  with  ob- 
stacles in  all  attempt  to  find  the  alpha  of  this  wonderful  and 
highly  mysterious  thing,  called  the  devil  !  Is  he  a  native 
of  heaven,  earth,  or  hell  ?  From  whence  did  he  come,  and 
whither  is  he  going  ?  We  are  frequently  told  in  this  en- 
lightened age  of  Christendom,  that  the  devil  is  a  native  of 
the  glorious  kingdom  of  our  God  and  his  Christ.  The  Rev. 
James  Covel,  author  of  the  Bible  Dictionary,  says,  that 
"the  devil  was  a  fallen  angel,  and  chief  of  those  who  were 


6  DISCOURSE. 

expelled  from  heaven,  for  rebelling  against  God."  Now, 
this  is  either  false  or  true  ;  and  that  it  is  false  we  have  no 
donht ;  although  it  has  been  preached  in  a  thousand  places, 
and  is,  at  this  time,  the  received  opinion  of  the  church  on 
the  green  earth.  But  we  do  not  differ  with  so  many,  both 
living  and  dead,  without  due  regard  for  their  opinions. 
Man  has  no  positive  proof  that  the  devil  was  a  fallen  angel, 
since  neither  Moses  nor  the  prophets,  Christ  nor  the  apos- 
tles have  so  informed  us.  As  such,  we  can  say  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  poet — 

"  No  clouds  these  blissful  regions  know — 
Forever  bright  and  fair. 
For  sin,  the  source  of  every  woe. 
Can  never  enter  there." 

Now,  is  it  not,  I  ask,  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  God 
permitted  a  wicked  and  fallen  angel  to  be  banished  to  our 
world,  and  that,  too,  for  the  purpose  of  imposing  himself 
on  women,  the  noblest  work  of  creation  ? — yes.  Eve,  the 
mother  of  us  all,  was  indeed  the  belle  of  all  her  children. 
And  can  we  suppose  that  God  did  permit  the  fallen  angel 
to  fly  from  the  high  and  shining  battlements  of  heaven  to 
deprive  an  innocent  woman  of  the  likeness  of  her  God, 
which  was  more  precious  than  the  friendship  of  an  angel, 
or  all  the  world  besides?  To  deprive  her  of  lovely  Eden, 
woman's  first  and  best  home — a  home  of  a  thousand  lovely 
flowers.  To  fill  a  heart  so  lovely,  so  innocent,  with  innu- 
merable sorrows.  To  fill  her  brilliant  eyes  with  an  ocean  of 
tears  of  grief;  and  finally,  to  lead  her  in  old  age  through 
the  valley  and  shadow  of  death  down  to  some  lonely  and 
awful  hell,  in  some  distant  world,  unseen  and  unknown  to 
her  in  life. 

My  friends,  I  tell  you,  most  positivel}'',  that  this  is  a 
strange  pill,  and  I  do  not  like  its  looks,  for  it  has  an  oflen- 
sive  smell.  I  cannot  down  with  it.  It  will  choak  me.  If 
you  think  you  can  dispose  of  it  to  j'our  spiiitual  welfare, 
you  may  have  it.  If  sin  originated  in  tlie  house  of  God, 
and  with  the  family  of  heaven  in   the  beginning,  it  may 


DISCOURSE.  7 

return  in  the  ages  to  come,  and  thus  our  anticipated  felicity- 
would  be,  in  all  probability,  greatly  molested,  if  not  alto- 
gether annihilated.  Sin,  and  the  devil,  and  all  kinds  of 
wickedness  had  their  origin  in  this  world,  in  the  house  of 
man,  and  not  in  the  edifice  of  Him  who  is  invisible,  immor- 
tal, and  eternal.  This  is  a  broad  position.  One  that  con- 
flicts with  the  opinions  of  eminent  men,  living  and  dead. 
Sin  having  originated  on  earth,  its  effects  must  be  confined 
to  the  earth.  And,  as  sin  originated  through  an  act  of  the 
human  family  on  the  one  part,  and  as  the  devil  is  said  to  be 
the  author  of  sin  and  all  wickedness,  therefore,  we  have 
supposed  that  Adam  and  Eve  had  a  hand  in  making  the 
devil.  And  that  their  posterity  have  kept  him  in  employ- 
ment. The  effects  of  sin  being  confined  to  this  world,  can- 
not be  transferred  from  earth  to  heaven.  The  crimes  of 
wicked  men  on  the  earth  cannot  in  any  way  molest  or  dis- 
turb the  inmates  of  heaven.  Nor  can  the  acts  committed 
in  heaven  by  angels  molest  the  people  of  this  mundane 
world.  There  is  in  heaven  no  sympathy,  nor  hatred,  nor 
jealousy,  nor  fear,  nor  spirit  of  rivalry.  All  these  had  their 
origin  and  are  having  their  progress  on  the  green  earth, 
and  not  in  the  starry  world.  The  greatest  collision  of 
the  railroad  cars,  the  most  fearful  earthquake,  the  most 
bloody  battle-fields,  with  all  famines  and  pestilence  do  not 
effect  the  inhabitants  of  the  celestial  world.  Why  not?  you 
ask.  I  answer,  because  they  attend  to  their  own  business, 
and  not  to  that  of  others.  Their  muse  is  of  a  heavenly 
nature,  not  of  an  earthly. 

I  saw  a  man,  not  many  years  ago,  fishing  from  the  ros- 
trum, on  Sunday,  for  a  compliment  ;  and  in  his  great  ex- 
citement in  speaking  of  the  last  day,  he  just  stabbed  the 
sun  at  noonday  with  his  tongue,  and  caused  it  to  be  turned 
into  blood.  Then  he  went  to  work  on  the  moon,  the  lovely 
queen  of  night,  and  soon  blew  her  out.  And  not  satisfied 
with  all  this,  he  went  to  striking  at  the  stars,  and  soon 
beat  them  all  down  ;  and  by  this  time,  was  just  about  out 
of  breath.  This  is  awful  preaching;  and  is  it  not  a  wonder 
that  the  inhabitants  of  those  orbs  do  not  have  them  insured  f 


8  DISCOURSE, 

The  doctrine  of  banishment  originated  from  an  earthly 
cause,  and  not  from  a  lieavenly  one,  as  some  liave  supposed. 
And  it  is  also  true,  tliat  the  practice  of  trying  men,  of  exe- 
cuting men,  of  excommunicating,  and  of  banishing  from 
one  to  some  other  country,  originated  through  the  actions 
of  men  on  the  earth.  And  it  is  also  true,  that  the  free  and 
independent  s})irit  of  emigrating  from  one  dominion  to  an- 
other, originated  with  the  people  of  this  earth.  Now,  if 
this  is  true,  then  their  doctrine  of  the  banishment  of  a  fallen 
angel  from  heaven  to  earth  is  false. 

Adam  and  Eve  were  banished  from  Eden,  man's  first  and 
best  home,  to  a  land  of  thorns  and  thistles.  Why  were 
they  driven  away?  Because  they  did  wrong.  They  par- 
took of  the  wrong  thing.  Cain,  the  unfortunate  son  and 
first  born,  was  banished.  What  for?  I  answer,  for  doing 
wrong;  for  murder.  But  in  after  ages,  it  was  the  lot  of 
St.  John,  the  beloved  disciple,  to  he  banished,  during  the 
reign  of  Domitian,  to  the  island  of  Patmos.  And  why  was 
he  banished?  I  answer,  for  doing  right.  Yes,  for  the  tes- 
timomy  of  God.  Ages  after  this,  the  great  Napoleon  Bona- 
parte was  banished  to  St.  Helena. 

Thus  we  have  seen  the  origin  of  banishment,  with  in- 
stances of  its  perpetuation  on  the  earth.  Now,  as  regards 
Cain's  banishment  to  the  land  of  Nod,  we  will  su}ipose  that 
that  land  had  no  devil  before  his  arrival  there.  Now,  how 
did  the  devil  get  to  that  country  ?  I  answer,  through 
Cain's  instrumentality.  And  it  has  been  in  this  way,  that 
he  has  emigrated  to  all  parts  of  the  inhabited  earth ;  and 
in  no  case,  known  to  man,  has  he  been  the  first  occupant 
of  any  state  or  territory.  In  this  particular,  he  is  no  squat- 
ter. This  Asiatic  devil  that  was  in  Cain's  hearty  is  no 
apostate  angel  with  golden  wings,  descending  from  some 
heavenly  sphere  to  excite  the  community,  and  then  fly  up 
and  perch  on  the  bright  stai's  of  heaven,  to  smile  at  man's 
foibles.  The  devil  had  a  beginning  of  days,  and,  like  man, 
must  have  an  end.  That  the  devil  is  an  immortal  being, 
without  beginning  of  days  or  the  end  of  time,  we  do  not 
nor  cannot  believe.     That  our  first  parents  had  a  little  to 


DISCOURSE.  if 

do  in  making  this  devil  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  is,  to  my 
mind,  as  plain  as  tlie  sun  in  the  heavens  at  higli  meridian. 
The  serpent  was  a  devil,  but  the  olFeuce  of  our  first  parents 
was  as  had,  if  not  a  worse  one.  It  is  a  fact,  that  the  races 
of  men,  from  time  immemorial,  have  added  to  the  success 
of  the  man  of  sin,  on  all  parts  of  the  earth.  And  as  the 
day  of  the  election  Is  at  hand_,  we  wish  to  say,  that  the  suc- 
cess of  the  devil  is,  to  some  extent,  like  that  of  the  politi- 
cians of  the  day,  dependent  on  the  choice  of  the  people  ; 
who  can  make,  and  who  can  destroy.  The  devil  works 
by  means,  and  but  seldom,  if  ever,  without  them.  The 
devil,  through  the  instrumentality  of  man,  has  more 
means  now  to  work  with,  than  he  had  in  the  days  of  Adam 
and  Eve.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said  of  him,  that  his  re- 
sources are  amply  sufficient  for  the  age  in  which  we  live  ! 
Notwithstanding  tliis,  he  has  not  always  tlie  same  amount 
of  capital  on  hand,  and  as  such,  is,  of  course,  better  ])re- 
pared  for  his  work,  when  in  possession  of  a  good  stock  of 
capital,,  than  when  his  stock  is  much  diminished.  The 
devil  is,  as  I  have  supposed,  dependent  on  the  pe()[)le,  in 
part,  for  the  implements  of  his  warfare.  All  persons  are 
not  of  the  same  worth  that  arc  in  his  employment.  This 
is  as  true  as  that  all  persons  are  not  of  the  same  worth  to 
the  state,  and  to  the  government  in  which  they  reside. 
And  thus  it  is  that  the  devil  does  more  through  so  menme 
than  through  some  otliers.  But  he  has  not  the  power  to 
influence  the  intellectual  man  contrary  to  his  wishes.  Not 
only  are  the  friends  of  the  man  of  sin  to  die,  but  even  the 
devil  himself  is  to  suffer  great  loss,  and  perhaps  annihila- 
tion. 

We  read  in  the  Scriptures,  that  the  serpent  was  to  go  on 
his  belly,  and  eat  dust  all  the  days  of  his  life.  And  from 
this  expression  we  may  prove  the  death  of  the  serpent,  and 
that  the  serpent  that  talked  with  Eve  is  dead  I  have  no 
doubt.  But  still,  I  will  not  say  that  his  spirit  is  not  liv- 
ing in  some  other  serpent  or  animal.  We  read  in  the 
Scriptures  that  the  devils  fear  and  tremble.  And  why  do 
they  ?     I  answer,  because  they  fear  an  approaching  annihi- 


10  DISCOURSE. 

lation,  "The  position  of  the  devil  in  the  world  is  to  be 
changed  in  the  future  ages."  Said  John  the  divine,  '^I  saw 
an  angel  come  down  from  heaven ;  and  he  caught  the  old 
serpent  and  chained  him,  and  cast  him  into  the  bottomless 
pit,  and  shut  him  up  for  a  thousand  years."  And  other 
Scriptures  go  to  prove  his  destruction. 

The  devil  is  not,  in  his  present  state,  an  immortal  and 
never-dying  being,  from  the  fact  that  immortal  beings  do 
not  fear  and  tremble.  And  from  this  fact  in  the  history  of 
the  dragon's  long  and  wicked  life,  we  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  he  is  in  some  way  related  to  wicked  and  sinful 
man.  Yes,  for  the  Scriptures  inform  us  that  some  persons 
are  the  children  of  the  devil,  and  take  pleasure  in  doing 
the  works  of  their  father,  the  devil.  We  may  fitly  com- 
pare the  man  of  sin — that  is  the  devil — to  a  pump-handle, 
which  goes  up  and  comes  down  as  best  suits  the  choice  of 
the  people.  The  trade  of  the  devil  in  this  world  is  some- 
what like  that  of  merchants,  fluctuating.  The  works  of  the 
devil  have,  at  different  periods  of  his  long  history,  been 
curtailed,  as  well  as  increased  by  the  hands  of  men.  Alco- 
hol is  the  invention  of  man  ;  and  its  introduction  into  our 
world  has  been  a  source  of  evil,  and  that  continually.  Yes, 
it  may  correctly  be  styled  the  young  devil  of  this  age.  It  is  a 
dirty,  sickly,  vomiting,  and  contageous  devil  ;  always  fill- 
ing the  world  with  broils,  and  the  prisons  with  criminals. 
But  after  all  this,  King  Alcohol  devil  is  more  universally 
beloved  by  men,  than  was  the  devil  of  the  garden  of  Eden. 
It  is  not  uncommon  to  see  men  courting  and  kissing  this 
young  devil,  who  has  juicy  lips,  but  an  offensive  breath. 
But  few  devils  have  done  more  harm  than  this  young,  but 
strong  alcoholic  devil.  This  is  one  of  the  devils  that  men 
see  and  feel,  and  should  shun  at  all  times.  A  still-house  in 
operation  is  in  some  respects  like  a  certain  pulpit  orator's 
hell,  who  said  with  a  loud  voice  that  "  hell  was  swinging 
hot ;"  said  he,  "^'you  had  better  believe  it,  I  tell  you  so;  and 
O,  think  of  the  rich  man's  tongue  in  hell-fire  !  Oh  listen  ! 
He  is  now  asking  for  one  drop  of  water  to  fall  on  his 
tongue  1" 


DISCOURSE.  11 

When  a  small  boy,  I  was  perfectly  disgusted  with  still- 
houses,  from  a  knowledge  of  a  painful  occurrence  that  took 
place  at  one  of  them.  It  was  this  :  A  school-mate  of  mine 
happened  to  be  at  his  father's  still-house  one  night,  and  be- 
ing fatigued,  went  to  sleep  ;  and  the  father,  whilst  engaged 
in  the  business  of  the  still,  happened  to  step  on  the  boy  ; 
and,  supposing  him  to  be  the  devil,  or  the  spirit  of  some 
poor  dead  drunkard,  he  struck  him  with  the  still-bucket, 
•which  spoiled  the  poor  little  sleeper's  countenance  in  a  mo- 
ment of  time.  This  took  place  more  than  twenty  years 
ago,  yet  it  is  fresh  in  my  memory  to-day.  Yes,  it  has  made 
an  impression  on  my  mind  that  will  go  with  me  to  the 
shades  of  the  tomb. 

We  often   think  of  the  great  injury  that  this   alcoholic 
devil  has  done   our  friends,  our  relatives,  and  our  beloved 
country.     He  has  turned   many  houses  of  plenty  into  pov- 
erty and  shame.     He  has  destroyed  the  lover's  happiness. 
Yes,  he  has  cut  him  off  from  the  land  of  the  living,  and  lo ! 
he  sleeps  in  the  grave.     0  !  see  that  young  man  in  the  rae- 
redian  of  his  day.     He  was  a  graduate ;  he  sprang  from 
'  a  good  family  ;  he  had  many  friends,  who  loved  him  and 
"  -wished  him  well.     But  this  alcoholic  devil  has  blasted  all 
'of  his  fond  hopes  for  years  to  come.     He  is  sinking  low  in 
"'  the  inebriate's  grave;  he  is  dead.     Could  I  only  preach  this 
alcoholic  devil  out  of  the  church,  and  out  of  the  world,  I 
■  could  then  say,  in  my  last  and  departing  moments,  that  I 
had    "  fought  a  good  fight,  that  I  had  kept  the  faith,  and 
that  the  Lord  would  give  me  a  crown  of  righteousnes  that 
fades  not  away." 

Whatever  has  a  tendency  to  remove  superstition  and  evil 
habits  from  the  community,  may  justly  be  classed  with 
good  works.  Nor  does  it  matter  by  whom  it  is  performed. 
It  is  a  good  deed,  and  the  doer  of  it  is  entitled  to  his  re- 
ward. Morality  is  good  in  its  place  in  society,  and  doubt- 
less is  a  friend  to  the  Christian  religion ;  although  it  has 
been  said,  and  that,  too,  from  the  sacred  desk,  that  moralists 
are  doing  more  to  injure  the  Christian  religion,  than  the 
^  worst  of  sinners.     Now,  is  it  not  a  pity  that  men  will  talk 


12  DISCOURSE. 

in  this  way  ?  But  poor  fellows  !  they  are  to  be  pitied  ;  and 
tlieir  saying  so,  does  not  make  it  so.  A  man  who,  by  na- 
ture, is  strictly  moi-al  and  honest,  will  always  be  a  better 
man  than  the  one  who,  by  nature  and  jn-actice,  is  immoral 
and  dishonest.  Brint?  them  both  into  the  church,  and  you 
will  always  see  a  difference  in  tlieir  i-eligious  deportment, 
althougli  botli  may  have  been  benefitted  by  the  gospel. 
And  I  am  sometimes  almost  ready  to  say  tliat  some  men  are, 
by  nature,  so  dishonest  and  wicked,  that  they  cannot  be 
made  perfectly  honest  by  the  gospel,  no  matter  by  whom  it 
is  preached.  This  is,  to  some  extent,  owing  to  the  choice 
that  men  and  women  make  in  selecting  companions  for  life. 

Now,  suj)pose  that  two  consumptive  persons  form  a  union 
for  life.  The  presumption  is,  that  their  children  would  be 
diseased.  And  suppose,  again,  tliat  two  dislionest  persons 
with  a  thousand  faults,  form  a  union  for  life.  The  pre- 
sumption is,  that  their  children  would  inherit  their  faults  ; 
and  would,  in  all  probability,  be  perfect  devils,  going  about 
seeking  whom  to  devour.  The  fathers  of  past  ages  were  ap- 
prised of  this  fact,  and  thus  chose  proper  persons  for  their 
children.  And  our  heavenly  Father  chose  the  tribe,  from 
which  the  Lord  Messiah  was  to  descend.  But  a  hint  to  the 
wise  is,  or  should  be  sufficient.  But  before  dismissing  this 
part  of  the  subject,  we  would  recommend  the  advice  of  a 
wise  man  of  former  times,  who  said,  "Train  up  a  child  in 
the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  de- 
part from  it." 

It  is  a  fact,  that  some  of  the  inventions  and  discove- 
ries of  the  j)ast  and  present  age,  have  operated  to  the 
discomfiture  of  the  man  of  sin.  The  press  with  her  nu- 
merous types  have,  to  a  good  degree,  been  tlie  means  of 
advancing  the  cause  of  the  Christian  religion  on  the  earth. 
And,  although  this,  as  well  as  some  other  things,  have 
been,  on  some  occasions,  abused,  yet  it  is  a  great  blessing 
to  state  and  church,  and  doubtless  has  done  more  for  God 
and  his  Christ,  than  it  has  for  the  devil  and  his  imps.  In- 
ternal improvements  have,  doubtless,  in  some  instances  been 
brought  to  bear  on  the  success  of  the  wicked  one.     Perhaps 


DISCOURSE.  13 

the  telegraph  has  been  the  means  of  arresting  some  of  the 
workers  of  darkness.  Already  has  the  devil  made  war 
against  the  wires,  having_,  in  some  instances,  cut  them 
down,  and  thus  causing  the  intelligence  to  fall  powerless  at 
his  feet.  Tlie  origin  of  tliis  wire-working  must  have  greatly 
confused  the  devil  on  its  first  introduction  along  our  great 
thoroughfares.  Many  of  our  cities  have  been  greatly  bene- 
fitted by  the  discovery  and  use  of  gas-lights  on  their  streets, 
thus  shining  devils  away  from  their  lurking  places.  War, 
famine,  and  pestilence,  have,  in  some  instances,  operated 
against  the  old  dragon.  The  gospel — the  laws  of  nations, 
and  benevolent  societies — have  all,  in  various  instances  op- 
erated against  the  works  of  the  man  of  sin.  Yes,  the  devil 
would  sell  whiskey  on  the  Lord's  day,  at  our  church  doors, 
save  for  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  death  of  some  men  in  political  power,  have  operated 
against  the  works  of  the  devil.  Yes,  in  the  death  of  Herod 
we  see  an  example  of  the  correctness  of  this  position. 
About  the  time  of  this  wicked  man's  death,  the  voice  of  the 
messenger  of  the  most  high  Grod  was  heard  in  the  land  of 
Egypt,  saying,  "Arise  and  take  the  young  child  and  hia 
mother,  and  go  into  the  land  of  Israel,  for  they  are  dead 
which  sought  the  young  child's  life."  After  which  the 
people  talked  of  his  death  and  wicked  reign,  and  of  the 
sorrow  that  he  had  caused,  saying,  "  In  Eama  was  there  a 
voice  heard,  lamentation,  and  weeping,  and  great  mourn- 
ing, Kachel  weeping  for  her  children,  and  would  not  be 
comforted,  because  they  are  not."  It  was  also  through  this 
man's  instrumentality,  that  John  the  Baptist  was  beheaded. 
Just  such  two-legged  devils  are  to  be  dreaded,  as  will  appear 
from  an  examination  of  their  history  for  ages  past.  Many 
devils  have  been  made  on  this  continent  since  it  was  dis- 
covered b}'  Columbus ;  and  but  few  men  live  to  be  old, 
without  learning  to  make  devils. 

Our  world  has  her  political  as  well  as  her  religious  de- 
vils; some  of  which  are  longlivcd.  It  has  not  been  long 
since  a  political  stick  devil  was  born  in  the  capital  of 
the   United  States  of  America,    which  was  admired   and 


14  DISCOURSE. 

worsliiped  hy  many.  Some  have  attended  at  called 
meetings,  to  bestow  gifts  of  gold,  witli  superscriptions;,  oa 
this  political  infant  stick  devil.  In  the  northern  portion 
of  the  United  States  are  mad  devils,  with  great  big,  black, 
woolly  heads.  Some  years  ago  the  church  made  a  devil, 
and  the  clergy,  with  some  little  help,  just  stretched  the 
llacJc  snake  all  the  way  across  the  United  States,  as  1  have 
been  informed;  not  that  I  know  this  to  be  so  of  my  own 
knowledge.  It  is  confidently  believed  that  some  hot-headed 
politicians  are  in  favor  of  making  a  disunionist  devil,  of  the 
same  length  of  the  church  devil,  that  the  preachers  helped 
to  make  and  stretch  from  shore  to  shore.  But  let  me  en- 
treat of  you  this  day,  my  congregation,  to  have  nothing  to 
do,  either  in  the  making  or  stretching  of  this  black  adder. 
For,  of  all  anticipated  political  devils,  this  is  most  to  be 
feared  by  the  American  people.  • 

If  our  Union  wishes  to  be  inundated  with  blood,  she 
only  has  to  stretch  this  long  devil  ;  and  then  it  will  be,  as 
was  said  by  a  preacher  in  a  discourse  not  many  years  ago, 
when  speaking  of  the  political  state  of  things  in  our  coun- 
try. Said  he,  ^' some  persons  wish  to  unite  church  and 
state,  but,"  said  he,  "  if  they  do  this,  I  say  it  will  be  good 
by  bright  eyes.  Your  days  are  numbered.  The  Scriptures 
are  perfectly  plain  on  this  subject.  They  speak  as  plainly 
to  this  nation  as  they  did  to  past  and  fallen  ones."  Said 
Christ,  that  great  Teacher  of  the  Christian  system,  ''  A 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand  ;  and  a  nation  di- 
vided against  itself  cannot  stand."  So,  we  see  what  will  be 
the  result  of  a  dissolution  of  this  our  much  beloved  Union. 

It  is  anticipated  that  the  people  of  Kansas  will  soon 
make  a  political  devil  in  that  part  of  the  country.  And  we 
have  good  reasons  to  suppose  that  some  members  of  the 
church  are  skilled  in  the  work  of  making  church  devils. 
Others  are  skilled  in  the  art  of  making  family  devils. 
Some  others  follow  the  pitiful  occupation  of  making  neigh- 
borhood devils,  and  in  addition  to  this  list,  we  have  some 
mob  devils.  Yes,  it  has  not  been  long  since  the  city  of 
Louisville,  Ky.,  was  visited  with  an  awful  mob  devil,  which 


DISCOURSE.  15 

overran  portions  of  the  beloved  city.  These  mob  devihs  are 
of  long  standing.  We  may  follow  them  back  to  the  time  of 
the  apostles.  Yes,  Stephen^  one  of  the  deacons  of  the 
church  in  Jerusalem,  was  stoned  by  a  mob  of  devils^  who 
cried  with  a  loud  voice,  and  stopped  their  ears,  and  ran 
wpon  him  with  one  accord,  and  killed  him.  Yes,  and  the 
church,  too,  like  the  world,  has  had  her  mob  devils. 

Only  think  of  a  church  having  men,  women,  and  children 
arrested  on  account  of  religious  notions.  Go  and  read  the 
books  of  martyrology.  See  men  and  women  in  the  midst 
of  flames  of  fire,  and  then  see  men  professing  to  know  the 
Ood  of  love  and  goodness,  smiling  over  suffering  and  dy- 
ing humanity.  Yes,  preachers  professing  to  be  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  God  of  the  Bible,  engaged  in  this  awful  work. 
May  I  be  permitted  to  say,  that  all  such  are  the  ivorst  of 
•devils.  0 !  my  congregation,  they  are  to  be  feared.  0  ! 
Lord  God!  save  the  people  from  all  such  hellish  pulpit 
imps  ! 

I  once  heard  a  minister  call  on  God,  in  his  prayer,  to 
come  down  from  his  holy  throne,  and  take  the  devil,  and 
lead  him  out  of  the  meeting-house,  and  chain  him  hard  and 
fast.  Now,  had  the  Lord  come  down  in  answer  to  this  min- 
ister's request,  it  is  probable,  at  least,  that  the  devil 
would  have  been  found  in  the  pulpit,  and  led  out  and 
chained, — and  thus  the  people  would  have  been  disap- 
pointed, and  left  without  preaching.  That  the  pulpits  of 
the  land  have,  in  some  instances,  been  occupied  by  minis- 
terial devils,  is  quite  manifest,  from  the  number  already 
caught,  and  published  in  the  common  newspapers  of  the 
day.  But  by  this,  we  only  wish  to  state,  that  God  has  his 
good  preachers,  and  the  devil  has  his  bad  ones. 

I  was  informed  once  by  a  young  gentleman,  that  he  saw 
one  of  the  old  devil's  preachers  take  one  of  the  largest 
drinks  of  whiskey  that  he  ever  saw  a  man  take  in  his  life. 
Said  he,  "  I  saw  him  cover  the  glass  with  one  of  his  hands, 
and  with  the  other  he  poured  out  so  much  from  a  black 
bottle  into  the  glass,  that  when  he  drank  it,  it  caused  him 
to  drip  from  his  eyes." 


16  DISCOURSE. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  some  persons  with  whom  I  have  con- 
versed, that  the  devil  takes  possession  of  the  spirits  of  the 
wicked  at  the  time  they  die,  and  goes  off  with  them  to  the 
unseen  world,  where  he  confines  them,  and,  if  necessary, 
punishes  them,  tooth  for  tooth,  for  offences  done  in,  as  well 
as  out  of  the  hody.  But  this  will  admit  of  douht,  since  it  is 
said  that  we  are  to  he  judged  for  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body,  and  not  out  of  it ;  and  that  tlie  judgment  is  to  he  in 
this  world  ;  and  that  the  spirit  must  re-enter  into  the  hody, 
in  order  to  he  judged.  This,  however  is  not  to  interfere 
with  the  doctrine,  that  the  spirit  can,  and  does  suffer  in  the 
disembodied  state.  The  devil  being  a  native  of  the  earth, 
and  having  remained  on  it  from  time  immemorial,  engaged 
in  his  work, — as  such,  we  have  concluded  that  he  has  not 
the  power  to  molest  any  one  out  of  this  world.  Now^  if 
the  spirit  goes  out  of  the  world  at  death,  then  the  devil 
cannot  molest  it,  as  his  power  is  confined  to  this  world.  It 
is  the  deeds  of  a  man  that  go  with  him  to  that  distant 
world,  not  the  old  serpent.  Men  have  the  power  to  resist 
the  devil,  and  it  is  their  duty  to  do  so.  Kesist  the  devil  and 
he  will  flee  from  you.  You  shall  not  be  tempted  above  that 
you  are  able  to  bear  ;  and  in  all  of  your  temptations  he 
will  make  a  way  for  your  escape.  This  is  sufficient,  and 
from  which  we  learn,  that  man  possesses  the  power  over 
the  devil;  so  that  he  cannot  touch  him_,  but  flees  from  him. 
Such,  are  the  friends  of  God,  doing  his  will  in  tliis  world. 
0  !  for  a  world  of  just  such  intelligence.  We  should  learn 
to  be  more  liberal  toward  each  other  on  all  religious  mat- 
ters, especially  such  as  pertain  to  the  other  world.  Let  us 
not  fall  out  with  each  other  on  the  way  to  a  better  world. 
Let  us  think  for  ourselves,  and  let  all  others  do  likewise. 
Let  us  LIVE,  and  let  others  do  likewise.  But  what  is  the 
cause  of  so  much  jealousy  and  hatred  in  the  churches  in 
this  enlightened  age  of  our  Christendom.  Manv  are  the 
causes  leading  to  this  unpleasant  state  of  things.  The 
devils  have  something  to  do  in  bringing  about  this  state  of 
things  both  in  church  and  state.  The  love  of  money  is  one 
cause,  for  we  are  informed  that  the  love  of  money  is  the 


DISCOURSE.  17 

root  of  all  evil.  A  desire  to  get  number.s, — that  is,  to  have 
the  largest  church  in  Christeiiclom,  is  another  cause.  Jeal- 
ousy may  be  called  another  cause  leading  to  this  unpleas- 
ant state  of  things  ;  and  a  desire  to  he  called  great,  is 
another. 

It  has  been  more  than  twenty  years  ago  since  I  heard 
this  little  anecdote,  and  which  I  will,  with  your  permission, 
relate  :  A  young  preacher  attended  a  meeting  in  company 
with  an  aged  and  learned  minister,  who  addressed  the  con- 
gregation first,  and  the  young  preacher  followed  with  the 
voice  of  thunder.  As  soon  as  the  meeting  was  dismissed 
the  young  preacher  said  to  some  of  the  members  of  the 
church,  "  do  you  not  think  that  I  beat  the  old  man  preach- 
ing to-day?"  "  Yes,"  said  they  in  reply,  "you  beat  him 
out  of  all  hollow.  You  brought  the  heavens  near  the  earth. 
You  roared  like  a  strong  lion.  You  have  made  old  scratch 
quake  this  time  I"  Now,  this,  in  part  at  least,  was  un- 
christian ;  and  was  well  calculated  to  spoil  the  young  cler- 
gyman, and  also  to  wound  the  old  one  ;  for  old  ministers 
have  feelings  as  well  as  young  ones.  But  in  all  probability 
this  young  man's  father  or  mother  Avas  possessed  with  the 
spirit  of  excelling  others  in  all  things.  Yes_,  perhaps  the 
father  was  a  braggadocio,  and  the  son  inherited  it  from  him. 
If  so,  it  was  a  defect  in  his  nature,  and  in  all  j)robability 
the  gospel  had  made  but  little  change,  as  regards  this  de- 
fect of  his  nature.  Yet,  he  may  have  been  benefitted  in 
other  respects,  by  the  power  of  the  gospel. 

About  ten  years  ago,  two  young  preachers  had  an  ap- 
pointment to  preach  ;  and  just  about  the  time  for  preach- 
ing, an  eloquent  clergyman  of  another  order,  walked  in  and 
took  a  seat  in  front  of  the  rostrum  ;  and  just  at  that  time, 
one  of  the  preachers  recognized  him  ;  and  turning  to  his 
young  brother  preacher,  who  was  in  the  act  of  rising  to  ad- 
dress the  congregation,  informed  him  that  an  eloquent 
minister  had  just  come  in.  And  said  he,  "  do  your  best." 
The  other,  however,  replied  to  him,  saying,  "  brother,  do 
not  be  alarmed,  for  I  will  soon  saw  off  his  horns."  Now, 
this  was  wrong  in  the  young  saiuyer,  and  perhaps  he  would 


18  DISCOURSE. 

have  been  better  employed  at  some  saw-mill !  Bat  perhaps 
he  had  been  reading  the  eleventh  cha[)ter  of  Heb. — ^'  They 
were  sawn  asunder."  Or,  peradveiitiue,  his  father's  cattle 
had  been  troubled  with  the  holloio-honi,  and  he  learned  ta 
saw  oif  horns  first  in  a  cow-pen  !  Now,  may  we  not  suppose 
that  the  devil  was  acquainted  with  this  young  preacher? 
Yes,  he  knew  him  like  a  book. 

The  rush  to  tlie  rostrum  is  great,  indeed.  And  think 
you,  that  some  in  the  crowd  have  come  after  tlie  loaves  and 
fishes, — have  come  to  fleece  the  flock, — to  lord  it  over  the 
people  of  God  ?  0  !  how  easy  it  is  to  see  maniii))i  ascending 
to  the  sacred  stand,  and  even  to  the  cross,  on  which  the 
Lord  Messiah  died, — to  see  the  formality  of  the  age  in 
the  seats  of  the  sanctuary  of  the  living  God, — to  see  men, 
unlike  the  prophets  and  apostles,  standing  in  that  holy 
place  !  0  !  how  few  of  ns  can  say,  as  did  the  apostle  Paul, 
when  speaking  of  himself  Said  he,  "These  hands  have 
ministered  to  my  necessities."  But  St.  Paul  lived  before 
the  introduction  of  fixed  and  extravagant  salaries  into  the 
churches.  In  this  age  of  religious  extravagance,  you  can 
scarcely  go  into  a  meeting-house  without  having  a  hat, 
plate,  or  bag  poked  at  you.  A  man  unacquainted  with 
such,  would  naturally  suppose  that  he  was  in  the  bank,  and 
not  in  the  church. 

The  world  has  a  great  deal  of  influence  in  the  churches 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Yes,  even  France  has  a  yearly 
fiishionable  influence  in  all  of  the  churches  in  America. 
The  customs  of  apostles  and  primitive  saints  have  been  lost 
sight  of  But  few  spend  much  time  now,  in  looking  after 
the  lost  sheep.  Think  of  the  churches  long  since  gone 
down,  and  of  that  saying  so  common  with  ministers  of  the 
gospel,  who  say  that  nothing  can  now  be  done  at  Broken 
]3ank  church,  nor  at  Little  Stingy  cha])el;  for,  say  they,  "we 
had  as  well  sing  psalms  to  a  dead  mule,  as  to  preach  to 
such  people."  Poor  fcHows  !  they  never  give,  and  as  such, 
never  receive."  Oh  yes,  you  are  about  to  let  the  cat  out  of 
the  bag  at  last !  You  get  no  money  at  Broken  Bank,  and 
Little  Stingy  Chai)el.     Is  it  money  that  inakcs  (he  mare  go? 


DISCOURSE.  19 

— and  is  it  monej^  that  makes  tlie  gospel  go,  too? — !  Yes, 
that  which  was  without  money  and  witliout  price,  is  now  of 
great  price, — say,  from  hundreds  to  thousands  of  dollars. 
It  is  now,  as  was  said  by  an  eminent  man  of  our  own  he- 
loved  country,  "  get  what  you  can,  and  what  you  get  hold, 
for  this  is  the  stone  that  will  turn  all  your  lead  into  gold." 
But  we  do  not  design  hy  this  to  say,  that  peeachers  should 
not  he  compensated.  But  we  do  say^  that  the  Scriptures  do 
not  make  a  difference  as  to  what  each  shall  receive.  One 
of  the  Lord's  preachers  is  entitled  to  just  as  much  as  an- 
other. So,  if  the  learned  and  eloquent  speaker  is  to  have 
one  thousand  dollars,  all  others  are  to  have  the  same 
amount.  The  Lord  has  no  half  preachers.  All  of  his 
preachers  are  of  the  same  worth.  Those  that  come  in- 
to the  vineyard  at  the  last  hour,  received  as  much  as  those 
that  went  in  at  the  first  hour.  The  custom  of  fixing  sal- 
aries for  preachers,  plainly  shows  to  the  man  of  biblical 
information,  that  the  spirit  of  the  world  has  crept  into  the 
church.  Some  churches  have  been  so  industrious  in  the 
accumulation  of  church  mammon,  that  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  their  bank,  with  other  inducements,  are  actually  at- 
tracting the  attention  of  poor^  lazy  young  men.  But  we 
see  it  now,  as  it  was  seen  in  the  days  of  the  unjust  steward, 
who  wasted  his  lord's  money,  and  said,  "■  I  cannot  dig."" 
Oh  yes,  some  of  just  such  unfortunate,  lazy  devils  have 
walked  on  this  green  earth  for  the  last  eighteen  hundred 
years,  crying,  "0!  I  cannot  dig!"  But  whilst  some  are 
like  the  poor,  unjust  steward  in  that  of  digging,  they  are 
altogether  unlike  him  in  that  of  begging. 

That  the  church  has,  in  some  instances,  acted  impru- 
dently in  the  way  of  getting  money,  all  will  doubtless  admit. 
Perhaps  the  wicked  are  giving  as  much,  if  not  more,  than 
the  church  is  giving  for  the  support  of  the  gospel.  The 
gospel  should  stand  or  fall  on  its  own  merits.  Now^  if  the 
church  is  dependent  on  the  dimes  of  sinners,  then  sinners 
have  an  influence  in  the  church.  Do  you  not  all  see  it? 
Is  it  not  so  ?  The  polite,  fashionable  gambler  has  an  in- 
fluence in  the  church,  not  only  by  his  dimes,  but  by  his 


20  DISCOURSE. 

moustaches.  Yoii  may  ask,  in  what  way?  I  answer,  by  in- 
fluencing the  minister  to  leave  liis  ;  and,  in  this  way,  he 
grows  on  clerical  lips,  chins,  and  throats.  I  do  not  speak 
of  this  to  deprive  any  one  of  liis  comforts,  hut  only  to  show 
how  the  author  of  fiishion  gets  into  the  church.  The  fid- 
dler, as  well  as  the  gambler^  may  be  said  to  have  an  influ- 
ence in  the  churcli,  although  he  did  not  seek  for  it.  How, 
you  may  ask,  can  this  be?  Listen,  and  I  will  tell  you  how 
it  is.  The  fiddler  played  a  tune  at  the  frolic,  and  the  peo- 
ple danced  it.  It  was  not  a  spiritual  tune.  But  on  church 
day,  one  of  the  members  of  the  church  fixed  it  to  a  song, 
and  the  church  sung  it !  Yes,  praised  Grod  with  it !  Now, 
as  the  fiddler  was  the  author  of  it,  and  it  went  from  his 
fiddle  into  the  church,  he  must  have  had  an  influence  in 
the  church  as  long  as  the  song  lasted. 

Some  years  ago,  at  one  of  my  appointments,  a  tune  was 
set  to  a  song  by  a  member  of  the  church,  and  the  singing 
was  quite  animating.  But  after  meeting,  an  aged  lady,  a 
member  of  the  church,  said  that  she  danced  that  tune  when 
a  girl,  in  a  ball-room.  "  And,"  said  slie,  "  it  was  a  sin  to 
sing  it  in  church.  I  am  sorry  that  I  went  to  the  meeting- 
house." But^  not  only  the  singing  in  church  is  at  times 
objectionable,  but  even  the  preaching.  I  remember,  when  a 
small  school-boy,  to  have  heard  a  minister  preach  on  the 
end  of  the  loorld.  And,  although  I  was  young  at  the  time 
I  heard  him,  I  still  recollect  some  of  the  sermon.  He  had 
a  tremendous  voice,  and  was  well  calculated  to  alarm  boys. 
Said  he,  ^'  This  world  will  all  be  destroyed,  and  it  may  be, 
for  what  I  know,  before  tlie  setting  of  tlie  sun."  Said  he, 
"Suppose  Gabriel  should  snatch  one  of  the  golden  caudle- 
sticks  from  the  altar,  and  fly  with  tlie  speed  of  electricity, 
and  touch  it  to  the  nortli  star!"  Said  he^  "all  would  be 
over  in  a  moment ;  and  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  all  con- 
sumed, and  the  earth  with  them  !" 

Now,  my  congregation,  is  not  such  preaching  calculated 
to  do  more  harm  than  good?  Many  do  not  understand  this 
subject.  0  !  I  cannot  think  that  a  fire  will  break  out  in 
that  beautiful  and  starry  world,  and  consume  all  the  bright 


DISCOURSE.  21 

and  lovely  abodes  of  the   inmates   of  the  sky.     No  I — the 
everlasting  gates  that  David  saw,  will  stand  forever. 

Some  years  ago,  in  the  west,  a  great  many  people  were 
alarmed  at  what  was  imperfectly  called  the  falling  of  the 
stars.  I  saw  it  ;  but  at  that  time  did  not  understand  it, — 
being  young  and  inexperienced.  But  I  now  look  back  un- 
derstandingly  to  that  frightful  morn,  and  think  of  the  many 
that  have  fallen  into  the  grave  since  that  night.  But  when 
I  raise  my  eyes  to  heaven,  I  see  that  all  is  as  it  was  in  the 
beginning;  and  so  will  it  ever  be.  Men  can  set  this  world 
on  fire,  but  cannot  fire  the  celestial.  I  know  that  the  Scrip- 
tures speak  of  the  heavens  being  on  fire,  and  the  passing 
away  of  the  earth,  but  I  only  have  time  to  say,  that  these 
things  are  not  correctly  understood.  No,  not  even  by  the 
wisest  of  ministers  of  the  gospel. 

Men  and  devils  pass  away ;  they  fade  as  the  visions  of 
night  ;  but  the  heavens  remaineth  forever.  Judas  Iscariot 
was  a  devil,  about  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  But  where 
is  he  to-day, — and  where  is  the  sun  that  illuminated  his 
horizen  ?  Yonder  he  is,  just  as  bright  as  he  was  then ;  and 
so  will  he  ever  be.  The  sons  of  men  die, — they  grow  dim  ; 
but  the  sun  of  the  firmament  abideth  forever,  and  look- 
eth  down  alike  on  all  the  races  of  men. 

We  have  no  doubt  that  many  have  sinned  in  fixing  the 
day  of  the  world's  annihilation.  But  time,  that  great  re- 
vealer  of  things^  both  small  and  great,  has  branded  many 
with  the  mark  of  the  false  prophet.  Let  us  all  think  a  lit- 
tle better  of  our  world,  and  live  so  as  to  better  the  condi- 
tion of  the  human  family.  If  the  devil  is  in  this  world,  it 
is  no  good  reason  why  we  should  desire  to  quit  the  world. 
Since  your  parents  were  in  the  world  a  little  while  before 
the  devil  was,  and  have  an  older  and  better  title  to  it  than 
he  has,  let  us  agree  that  we  will  say  less  about  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  world,  and  more  about  the  improvement  of  it. 
Let  us  not  be  in  such  haste  about  going  from  this  world. 
No  doubt  but  many  are  doing  quite  well,  but  do  not  know 
it ;  and  are  always  talking  about  going  to  heaven.  Per- 
haps they  would  do  as  well  to  remain  a  little  longer  with 


22  DISCOURSE. 

US,  and  try  and  find  out  a  little  more  about  that  country, 
and  get  a  little  better  prepared  to  go  to  it.  Heaven  is  said 
to  be  at  a  great  distance  from  the  earth ;  but  still,  we  are 
informed  by  some  of  our  friends,  that  Ave  can  go  it  in  a  mo- 
ment of  time.  But  as  it  requires  time  to  perform  a  journey 
to  the  capital  of  the  United  States  of  America,  or  even  to 
go  one  mile  to  see  those  we  love  best,  we  have  thought  it 
best  to  allow  a  little  time,  at  least,  to  perform  this  great 
journey  from  earth  to  heaven.  It  is  frequentl}'-  said  at  the 
time  of  a  good  man's  death,  that  he  is  in  heaven.  Now, 
would  it  not  be  the  better  way,  to  say  that  he  is  on  his  way 
to  heaven  ?  Why  should  we  wish  to  go  charging  into  the 
spirit  laud?  Is  it  because  there  is  nothing  pleasing  and 
attractive  on  the  way?  This  notion  of  darting  into  the 
heavenly  world  in  a  moment  of  time,  reminds  me  of  the  lady 
on  the  railroad  cars,  who  said  that  she  "  did  not  approve 
of  this  way  of  flying  through  the  state,  without  giving  a 
person  time  to  see,  eat,  or  sleep  ;  for,"  said  she,  "  I  am 
only  traveling  to  see  the  country  !" 

It  is  a  fact,  that  no  one  in,  or  out  of  the  church,  has  ever 
seen  the  devil  separate  and  apart  from  some  visible  person 
or  animal.  Of  all  the  known  devils  on  the  earth,  those 
that  go  on  legs  are  the  most  to  be  feared.  And  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  crimes  charged  to  the  devil,  should  have  been 
charged  to  men.  That  the  devil  has  been  in  good,  as  well 
as  in  bad  company,  no  one  w\\\  doubt.  He  has  been  with  the 
noble  sons  of  earth.  He  was  with  Job,  the  Arabian  chief 
of  Uz.  He  was  also  ^\'\t\\  the  apostle  Peter.  And  the 
Scriptures  say  that  he  was  Avith  the  Messiah,  on  an  exceed- 
ing high  mountain,  and  showed  unto  him  all  the  kingdoms 
of  the  Avorld,  in  a  moment.  0  !  wonderful  exhibition  this! 
Who  has  done  more  in  a  moment  of  time?  But  tlie  Lord 
knew  hoAv  to  treat  even  a  devil  ?  And  is  it  not  a  pity  that 
we  are  so  deficient  in  this  respect?  It  is  one  thing  to  be 
with  the  devil,  but  another,  and  a  difierent  thing  to  be 
influenced  by  him.  Tlie  Son  of  God  Avas  not  seriously  in- 
jured by  being  witli  the  devil ;  although  he  sat  liim  doAvn 
on  the  top  of  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple.     I  once  heard  a 


DISCOURSE.  23 

minister  say,  that  the  devil  sat  the  Messiah  on  the  top  of 
that  high  pinnacle,  with  the  expectation  that  he  would  fall 
and  kill  himself.  Now,  perhaps,  I  shall  not  make  a  greater 
mistake  than  this,  by  saying,  that  it  is  not  altogether  un- 
likely that  the  devil  that  took  our  Lord  on  the  mountain^ 
and  on  the  pinnacle,  was  the  spirit  of  some  of  the  earthly 
potentates,  who  had  been  in  authority,  and  who  had  jaos- 
sessed  or  governed  those  kingdoms  that  were  shown  on  the 
mountain's  top.  The  Lord  was  tempted  in  all  points,  as  we 
are,  yet  without  sin. 

]S[ow_,  if  demons  did  tempt  men  in  that  age  of  the  world, 
then,  the  position  in  this  case  may  be  true  ;  since  it  would 
be  as  easy  for  the  Messiah  to  dispossess  a  demon  from  him- 
self as  from  the  nobleman's  son.  That  demons  are  called 
devils  in  king  James'  translation  of  the  Bible,  no  one,  it  is 
presumed,  will  deny.  Nor  is  it  unreasonable  to  suppose, 
that  the  spirits  of  dead  persons  would  seek  to  molest  the 
Son  of  Man,  since  it  was  so  frequent  with  the  spirits  of 
the  living.  And^  if  a  spirit  would  do  so  in  the  body  of  tho 
living  person,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  it  would 
do  so  in  the  disembodied  state. 

In  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  it  is  supposed  that  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  remained  for  ages  in  this  world.  Such 
was  the  case  in  the  days  of  Christ  and  the  apostles ;  and 
thus  the  Son  of  God  gave  the  apostles  power  over  devils 
and  unclean  spirits,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  cast  them  out 
of  the  people. 

I  thought,  when  a  small  boy^  I  saw  the  devil,  and  never 
was  I  worse  alarmed.  I  screamed  as  loud  as  I  could,  and 
every  nerve  in  my  body  was  excited.  But  I  was  mistaken 
in  the  thing  that  I  saw  ;  it  Avas  the  shadow  of  an  old  drunk- 
ard on  the  door  of  the  house.  And  ever  since  that  time, 
whenever  I  see  anything,  or  hear  of  anything  that  looks 
like  the  devil,  I  am  almost  certain  to  look  around  for  some 
person ;  and  have  generally  been  successful  in  striking  hu- 
man tracks. 

We  frequently  hear  people  say,  that  the  devil  is  in  the 


24  DISCOURSE. 

church.  But  how,  suppose  you,  that  he  got  into  it?  "0!" 
says  one,  "he  is  omnipresent  ;  and  just  steps  in  and  out  as 
best  suits  him."  But,  my  good  friend,  permit  me  to  inform 
you^  that  you  are  mistaken ;  for  the  devil  can  only  enter 
into  the  church  tlirough  some  person.  And  whenever  the 
devil  is  supposed  to  he  in  the  churchy  you  may  examine  the 
members,  for  he  is  in  some  of  them  ;  and  should  you  not 
find  him  among  the  members,  then  go  into  the  rostrum ; 
and  should  you  not  find  him  there,  then  you  only  have  to 
examine  yourself,  and  you  will  have  him,  no  mistake. 

My  friends,  let  us  examine  ourselves,  for  many  have  devils 
and  are  not  apprised  of  it.  A  small  fault  in  a  man  may 
be  indulged  in,  until  it  will  grow  to  be  a  fearful  and  dan- 
gerous devil.  Think  of  the  thoughts  of  Simon's  heart;  and 
remember  that  even  an  evil  thought  will  soon  grow  to  be  as 
large  as  the  devil.  Said  Paul,  "I  verily  thought  that  I 
ought  to  do  many  things  contrary  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth." 
Eemember  that  Ananias  and  his  wife  thought  they  could 
keep  back  a  part  of  the  price  of  the  land.  But  this  thought 
caused  them  to  die.  Yes,  the  thoughts  of  the  devil  con- 
sealed  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  women,  have  terminated  in 
shame  and  everlasting  infamy.  0 !  think  of  the  many 
who  have  been  ruined  for  all  time,  and  excluded  from  all 
refined  society,  by  giving  way  to  evil  thoughts.  Let  us  all 
remember  that  the  devil  is  in  our  wicked  thoughts,  as 
well  as  in  our  wicked  deeds.  Let  us  be  careful  how  we  talk 
after  all  sly  devils,  Avho  only  im])art  unto  us  information  on 
the  ground  that  we  will  not  tell  it  to  any  one  living. 

I  once  heard  a  man  say  to  another,  that  he  knew  some- 
thing that  he  did  not  know.  And^  said  he,  "  I  will  tell  it 
to  you,  if  you  will  give  me  your  word  and  honor  that  you 
will  never  tell  it  to  any  living  soul."  ''No,"  said  the  man 
to  him,  "  I  will  not  hear  it;  for  if  it  is  not  worth  telling, 
it  is  not  worth  having!"  We  would  recommend  to  all 
such  news-pedlars,  the  advice  of  a  wise  king,  who  has  said, 
that  "a  still  tongue  makes  a  wise  head."  A  tongne  devil 
is  a  dangerous  and  fearful  devil.     It  is  a  little  member,  but 


DISCOURSE.  25 

a  big  devil.  The  apostle  of  former  times,  speaking  on  this 
little  tongue  devil,  says,  that  '''men  have  tamed  wild  beasts, 
but  no  man  hath  tamed  the  unruly  member." 

The  devil  cannot  injure  us,  save  through  some  agent; 
therefore,  he  is  powerless  when  no  one  will  act  for  him,  or 
permit  him  to  act  through  them.  Christ  was  not  betrayed 
until  Judas  agreed  to  sell  hira,  nor  until  he  had  carried  out 
his  agreement.  Stephen  could  not  be  stoned  by  the  devil, 
but  was  by  his  agents.  Christ  was  not  crucified  by  the  de- 
devil  ;  but  his  agents,  with  wicked  hands,  put  him  to 
death.  So  said  St.  Peter,  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  And 
so  say  we  in  the  Old  North  State.  The  old  devil,  of  him- 
self has  injured  no  man  living — in,  or  out  of  the  church, 
for  the  last  thousand  years.  That  is  to  say,  he  does  not 
work  without  means.  The  naked  spirit  of  the  devil,  does 
not  operate  on  the  naked  spirit  of  man,  save  through  words, 
or  signs,  or  some  kind  of  instrumentalities.  The  devil  en- 
ters into  our  earthly  house  through,  or  b}''  some  fixed  prin- 
ciples, and  goes  out  by  other  means.  The  apostles  did  not, 
as  I  have  supposed,  cast  out  the  devil  from  the  hearts  of 
men  by  the  same  means  that  gave  him  admittance.  He  en- 
ters by  permission,  but  goes  out  by  resistance. 

It  is  the  duty  of  all  men  to  resist  the  devil ;  but  as  he  is 
quite  popular  in  some  sections,  and  has  many  winning 
ways,  it  will  require  much  firmness  and  self-denial.  We 
would  earnestly  recommend  you  to  read  the  advice  of  the 
man  of  God,  as  it  is  presented  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the 
Ephesians ;  for  it  cannot  fail  to  benefit  you  in  your  passage 
through  this  world. 

Finally,  my  brethren,  be  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  in  the 

power  of   his  might.      Put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God, 

that  ye  may  be  able  to  stand  against  the  wiles  of  the  devil; 

For  we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood  only,  but  against 

principalities,    against   powers,    against   the  rulers'  of  the 

darkness  of    this  world  ;    against   spiritual  wickedness  in 

high  places.     A  devil  in  political  or  religious  power,  is  an 

awful  thing  ;  it  is,  indeed,  an  exciting  and  fearful  thing_, 

as  will  appear  from  the  history  of  past  ages.     But  our  lots 
4 


26  DISCOURSE. 

have  been  cast  in  a  land  of  j^olitical  and  religions  liberty; 
for  which  all  sliould  feel  grateful  to  Hitn  that  liveth  and 
abideth  forever.  And,  above  all,  to  strive  to  do  bis  will 
dnring  this  short  and  fleeting  life;  which  is,  at  best,  like 
the  flower  of  the  field,  tliat  withers  and  decays.  Let  us, 
as  Christians,  live  in  peace  with  all  men;  and  pursue  that 
in  life,  that  will  give  ease  in  the  hour  of  death.  And  thus, 
we  shall  go  hence  with  a  consciousness  of  having  benefitted 
the  world. 

Many  great  and  good  men  and  women  have  lived  and  died 
in  all  parts  of  our  country,  leaving  us  an  example  for  our 
future  sojourn  among  the  children  of  men.  0!  let  us  fondly 
think  of  tlie  many  loved  ones,  who  have  worshiped  with  us 
here  in  this  sanctuary,  in  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and  in 
the  bonds  of  brothei'ly  affection.  And_,  should  we  differ  as 
regards  the  "fallen  angel/'  on  the  remarks  of  this  dis- 
course, yet,  such  need  not  i^revent  us  from  living  and  see- 
ing Him  who  is  invisible,  eternal,  and  immortal. 

And  now,  in  the  conclusion  of  this,  my  discourse  on  the 
origin  of  the  "  man  of  sin,"  I  tender  my  thanks  to  you  all 
for  your  unwearied  attention,  and  for  the  many  favors  be- 
stowed on  me  during  ray  sojourn  in  your  midst,  for  the  last 
seven  years.  My  attachment  for  you  all  is  lasting  ;  and  it 
will  aftord  me  the  greatest  pleasure  to  remember  you,  and 
to  speak  of  your  hospitalities  and  Christian  virtues  at  all 
times.  I  shall  ever  look  back  with  pleasure  to  those  shady 
and  heavenly  jjlaces,  where  so  many  saints,  living  and 
dead,  have  worshiped  together  in  the  beauty  of  holiness, 
having  their  spiritual  strength  renewed,  and  their  pros- 
pects brightened  for  a  blessed  immortality  in  the  ages  to 
come.  May  you,  my  congregation,  live  for  happiness,  and 
for  the  good  of  your  much  beloved  country  ;  and,  liaving 
so  done,  may  you,  at  a  proper  time,  go  hence  with  pleas- 
ure, and  not  with  regret.     Amen. 


IS- 


At  a  special  meetinjj  of  the  Vestry  of  Christ's  Church.Raleigh,  held 
on  the  18th  day  of  June  I840,a  letter  of  resignation  from  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Freeman.the  Rector  of  the  church,  was  read  in  the  following  words- 
Dear  Brethren, 

Believing  that  the  tin:ie  has  fully  come  when  I  can  no 
longer^ hope  to  be  substantially  useful  to  the  people  of  my  charge,  I 
feel  it  t'o  be  my  duty  to  tender  to  you,  as  I  hereby  do,  my  resignation 
as  Rector  of  Christ's  Church :  and  I  beg  that  you  will  accept  the  same, 
as  it  is  offered  in  the  spirit  of  good  will  and  brotherly  love. 

With  many  thanks  for  past'_^kindnesses,  and  with  heartfelt  wishes 
and  earnest  prayers  for  the  future  prosperity  both  temporal  and  spiri- 
tual of  yourselves  and  the  congregation  which  you  represent, 
I  am  Brethren, 

Respectfully  and  affectionately 
'    Your  friend  and  servant, 

Geo.  W.  Frebman, 
To 

The  Wardens  and  Vestry 
of  Christ's  Church  Raleigh, 

June  18th,  1840. 
And  accompanying  the  said  letter  of  resignation  (to  be  read  in  case 
the  Vestry  should  ask  for  the  reasons  which  had  induced  the  resigna- 
tion) was  a  paper  in  the  following  words — 

Should  it  be  inquired  by  the  Wardens  and  Vestry  of  Christ's  Church, 
on  what  grounds  the  Rector  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he  can 
no  longer  hope  to  be  generally  useful  to  the  congregation  comprising 
his  present  charge,  he  would  in  all  kindness,  but  frankly,  submit  the 
following  reply  : 

That  it  is  essential  to  the  usefulness  of  one  sustaining  the  relation  of 
Pastor  to  a  christian  flock,  that  the  members  of  his  communion  as  a 
body,  and  himself  should  "be  of  one  mind"  in  regard,  at  least,  to  the 
more  important  matters  of  faith  and  practice,  the  Rector  supposes  will 
not  be  denied.  The  pastor  and  his  flock,  maintaining  and  acting  un- 
der different,  especially  o^jjosiile  views  of  christian  doctrine  and  chris- 
tian duty.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  respect  entertained  for  him,  and  con' 
sequently  his  influence  for  good,  must  be  greatly  circumscribed.     In- 


awc^wi>...,  .-^.--.,  .^...i.ijj  upon  those  points  on  wuicu  mey  uiuoi  wuL 
be  thrown  away — nay  will  probably  be  trampled  under  foot;  and  he 
who  offers  them  may  soon  become  an  object  of  dislike,  if  not  of  scorn 
and  insult.  Nor  will  there  be  hope  of  better  success  in  his  ministra- 
tions to  that  interesting  class  which  the  christian  minister  habitually 
regards  as  "the  hope  of  thefiock" — the  young  and  rising  generation. 
The  prevailing  sentiments  and  practice  of  their  seniors  in  the  churchy 
will,  with  them,  almost  always  outweigh  the  precept  of  their  minister, 
and  be  can  never  open  his  lips  in  instruction  to  them  upon  any  of 
those  contested  points,  however  important  he  may  view  them,  with  the 
least  hope  of  effect.  His  ofEce.as  an  authoritative  instructor  injighte- 
ousness.has  virtually  come  to  an  end. 

And  it  is  much  in  this  situation  that  the  Rector  of  Christ's  Church 
finds  himself  placed  now  at  the  close  of  the  eleventh  year  of  his  minis- 
try in  that  Church.  He  and  a  large  portion  of  the  communicants  of 
his  charge,  including  a  large  majority  of  the  Wardens  and  Vestry,ar« 
directly  at  issue  upon  a  subject  which  he  sincerely  believes  to  be  inti- 
mately connected  wiLh  the  interests  of  vital  religion  among  them — 
that  of  christians  indulging  in  worldly  amusements. 

When  he  first  took  charge  of  the  congregation,  and  for  several, per- 
haps FIVE  years  afterwards, such  a  thing  as  a  communicant's  attending 
a  theatre,  a  publick  ball,  or  even  a  private  dancing  party,  was  scarcely 
known  among  them,  nor  was  there  a  voice  heard  in  approbation  of 
such  a  practice.  Indeed  it  is  believed  that  the  sense  of  the  great  ma- 
jority.if  not  of  the  whole  communion, was  strong  and  decisive  against  it. 
That  the  Rector  was  of  the  same  opinion  with  his  flock  upon  the  sub- 
ject, the  whole  tenor  tf  his  teachings  both  public  and  private,  from  the 
beginning  of  his  ministrations  has  abundantly  borne  witness,  and  for 
»IVE  years  he  was  happy  in  the  belief  that  he  and  his  brethren  of  the 
communion  were,  in  respect  to  the  matter  in  question,  "of  one  heart 
and  one  soul." 

Since  that  period,  however,  a  change  has  come  over  the  congrega- 
tion, a  new  spirit  has  arisen,  and  the  Pastor  and  his  flock  are  no  longer 
"of  one  mind."  Successively,  the  questions  have  been  virtually  raised 
and  more  or  less  discussed  between  the  congregation  and  their  minis- 
ter; 1st,  Whether  communicants  of  the  church,  consistently  with  the 
solemn  vows  which  are  upon  them,  and  their  sacred  character  as 
••temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  as  "members  of  Christ,  children  of  God, 
and  inheritors  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  may  give  at  their  own  hou- 
ses, or  attend  nt  the  houses  of  others,  those  worldly  entertainments, 
commonly  calUd  dancing  parties;  and  2d,  whether  they  may  wuli 


3 

like  consistency  attend  public  places  of  worldly  amusements,  such  a* 
Theatres,  Circuses,  and  Balls. 

On  both  these  questions  the  Rector  has  constantly,  and  he  trusts 
conscientiously,  yet  affectionately  maintained  the  negative.  Notwith- 
standing his  frequently  expressed  opinions,  however,  and  in  spite  of 
his  most  strenuous  effurts  to  procure  from  his  people  what  he  deem- 
ed a  right  decision,  and  to  establish  a  wholesome  practice  upon  these 
points,  the /ormer  question,  it  would  seem,  and  he  supposes  will  be  ad- 
mitted, has  for  some  time  past  been  by  i\ic  general  voice,  as  indicated 
by  the  general  practice,  decided  in  the  affirmative.  While  the  latter, 
although  pending  the  former,  it  seemed  to  be  conceded  that  it  was  by 
no  means  to  be  sustained,  has  since  found  numerous  practical  suppor- 
ters, and  more  recently  has  in  like  manner  with  the  other  seemed  to 
be  affirmatively  settled. 

Thus  are  these  two  questions  decided,  at  least  by  the  general  prac- 
tice of  the  communicants,in  direct  contrariety  to  the  known  opinions,and 
the  solemn  public  and  private  teaching  of  their  minister. 

Under  these  circumstances,  there  having  been  no  change  of  senti- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  Rector,  it  still  being  his  honest  and  decided  be- 
lief that  the  practice  thus  established,  if  persevered  in,  will  be  ultimate- 
ly destructive  of  all  vital  religion  in  the  congregation,  and  being  de- 
prived by  these  decisions.as  he  thinks.of  all  reasonable  hope  of  further 
benefiting  materially  the  people  of  his  charge,  especially  the  young  to 
whom  he  has  been  accustomed  to  look  with  most  confidence  of  hope, 
he  has  felt  it  to  be  his  duty,  and  indeed  the  only  consistent  course  left 
for  him  to  pursue,  to  retire  if  permitted,  from  his  most  difficult  post,and 
give  place  to  some  other  person  who  by  the  blessing  of  God  may  be 
more  successful  in  engaging  the  affections  of  the  congregation,  ind  in- 
spiring them  with  respect  and  confidence  in  him,  as  a  wise  and  judi- 
cious pastor,  and  a  safe  spiritual  guide. 

GEO.  W.  FREEMAN. 

Raleigh,  June  18th,  1840. 

And  thereiweon  motion  it  was  resolved,  that  the  said  resignation 
be  accepted,  to  take  effect  at  the  expiration  of  the  current  year  of  the 
pastor's  engagement. 

And  it  was  also  resolved,  that  a  committee  be  appointed  by  the  sen- 
ior warden  to  consider  of  and  report  proper  resolutions,  &c.on  the  oc- 
casion, to  the  vestry  at  an  adjourned  meetmg,  to  be  held  on  the  25th  of 
said  month. 

And  at  the  adjourned  meeting  Messrs.  Badger  and  Bryan,  thecom- 
jTjitiao  e-^  "^r.ointed,  submitted  the  following;  renoife— '^^-"^  —■*'-  '■'-  v 


preamble  and  resolutions  accompanying  the  same,  was  adopted  by  the 

Vestry. 

The  Committee  hnving  read  the  paper  drawn  up  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Freeman,  and  containinq;  the  reasons  whicli  induced  his  resignation, 
tendered  and  accepted  at  ihe  last  meeting  of  the  vestry,  think  it  due  to 
themselves,  to  the  Yestrj',  and  to  the  congren^ation,  to  submit  some  ob- 
servations thereupon,  before  oftering  the  resolutions  which  accompany 
this  report. 

The  Committee  believe  that  there  are  many  things  in  the  conduct 
of  life,  about  which  religion  gives  us  "no  positive  precept,"  in  reference 
to  which  there  is  "room  for  diflference  of  opinion,"  and  on  which  every 
member  of  the  church  has  a  right  to  form  his  own  judgment,  and  is 
not  justly  liable  to  condemnation  for  it  by  them  who  embrace  an  oppo- 
site opinion.  Amongst  these  things  ''are  certain  diversions  and  a 
certam  degree  of  intercourse  vi'ith  general  society,  about  the  lawful- 
ness or  unlawfulness  of  which, there  not  only  does,  but  may  reasonably 
exist  that  sort  of  difTerence  in  opinion  which  prevailed  among  the 
Jewish  converts  as  to  the  Mosaic  rites,  or  amongst  the  Gentiles  a?  to 
meat  offered  to  idols,"  In  regard  to  these  he  that  parfaketh  hath  no 
Dght^to  despise  him  that  scruples  to  partake;  nor  halh  he  that  entertains 
the  scruple  a  right  to  judge  him  that  partaketh.  Every  man,  indeed 
should  be /wZ/y  pcrs?^flierZ  in  his  own  mind  lest  his  conscience  con- 
demn him  in  that  which  his  practice  alloweth — bt.t  beyond  this,  in  re- 
gard to  these  things,  there  is,  in  our  view,  no  positive  and  obligatory 
precept.  In  regard  to  them  therefore  no  man  has  a  right  to  require 
of  another,  as  a  point  of  religious  duty,  conformity  with  his  opinion  or 
his  practice.  If  he  can  establish  by  argument  the  justness  of  his  opin. 
ion,  or  reasonableness  of  his  practice,  he  will  have  achieved  the  viclo. 
ry  of  truth  over  error,  but  he  can  have  no  right  to  supply  by  authority 
the  defectiveness  of  his  proof.  We  believe  that  "to  inveigh  in  gene- 
ral terms  against  public  assemblies,  and  amusements  sanctioned  by  so- 
ciety, as  if  all  toleration  of  them  were  positive  evidence  of  a  worldly 
spirit"  and  "as  if  a  practice  necessarily  became  unchristian  because  it 
had  public  opinion  in  its  favor,"  "is  neither  just  nor  practically  useful ;" 
that  it  is  "to  confound  things  indifferent  in  themselves,  with  things 
wrong  in  themselves,"  and  to  erect  out  of  an  allowable  difference  of 
opinion  on  subjects  left  unsettled  by  positive  precept,  "a  sort  of  party 
distinction"  in  the  Church,  whereby  "the  union  among  brethren  who 
have  one  common  interest  is  dissolved,  and  the  friendly  collision  which 
Avould  be  beneficial  to  "both  parties  is  exchanged  for  an  injurious  op- 
position." 


With  these  views  (held  we  believe  by  a  large  majority  of  the  con- 
gregation) we  and  others  exercising  an  undoubted  right  to  decide  for 
ourselves,  those  matters  which  have  not  been  settled  for  us,  have  adop- 
ted the  opinion  that  "those  entertainments  commonly  called  dancing 
parties"  are  in  themselves  innocent  and  allowable,  and  hence  we 
have  attended  them  at  the  houses  of  our  friends,  and  have  given 
them  at  our  own.  We  have  thought  that  if  Christians  in  St.  Paul's 
lime  were  at  liberty  when  bidden,  to  attend  feasts  at  the  houKes  of 
avowed  Idolaters,  it  cannot  be  in  itself  wrong,  in  our  day,  to  attend  or 
give  feasts,  with  or  to,  friends  and  acquaintances  who  are  at  the  least 
nominal  christians,  and  certainly  neither  professed  idolaters  nor  athe- 
ists. As  this  privilege  of  attending  such  feasts  in  the  apostle's  day 
was  not  restricted  to  those  from  which  dancirg  was  banished,  so  wc 
conceive  that  their  lawfulness  now  is  not  affected  by  the  presence  or 
absence  of  ihat  amusement. 

We  have  been  aware  that  our  Rector  entertained  different  views,  we 
have  regretted  that  he  did,  but  we  freely  accorded  to  him  the  same 
right  of  judgment  which  we  claimed  for  ourselves.and  never  for  a  mo- 
ment supposed  that  such  difference  of  opinion  formed  any  barrier  a- 
gainst  Christian  communion, or  kindly  intercourse,or  mutual  respect. 
We  felt  sure  thai  no  man  had  a  right  to  demand  uniformity  of  opin- 
ion or  practice  in  matters  not  determined  by  Christianity  ;  and  that  the 
relation  of  pastor  and  people  did  not  involve  the  surrender  on  the  part 
of  the  latter  of  all  freedom  of  thought,  and  the  adoption  of  any  rule  of 
conduct,  merely  because  he  deemed  it  proper  and  necessary  to  pre- 
scribe it.  If  we  are  wrong  in  this,  then  the  gospel  so  far  from  havino- 
delivered  us  from  that  body  of  ceremonial  observances  which  the  Jews 
found  intolerable.and  given  us  some  freedom  of  thought  and  action  in 
regard  to  matters  of  mere  expediency  (that  is  of  matters  not  deter- 
mined by  the  gospel)  has  in  effect  left  us  liable  to  the  imposition  of  a 
ritual  for  all  the  intercourse  of  life  as  strict,  minute  and  burdensome  as 
that  of  the  Jews  without  its  permanence, its  limitations,  its  uniformity, 
or  its  divine  original.  To  submit  to  divine  appointments  with  implic- 
it obedience  is  the  part  of  true  wisdom,  for  of  them  we  are  sure  the 
reason  is  the  highest  and  best  whether  it  be  known  to  us  or  not ;  but 
the  opinions  of  men  can  justly  command  assent  only  so  far  as  they  ap- 
pear to  be  supported  by  adequate  reasons.  To  give  to  these  opinions 
the  for(pf.of  laws  would  have  an  effect  upon  the  pastor  no  less  injurious 
than  upon  the  congregation,  and  if  all  right  of  inquiry,  of  private  judg- 
ment, be  denied  to  the  congregation,  it  seems  a  very  useless  proceed- 
ing to  put  the  scriptures  into  their  hands  with  directions  to  examine 


6 

— to  try  the  doctrines  they  hear — to  search  the  scriptures  for  their 
guidance  in  the  path  of  duty.  Yielding  to  others  the  same  freedom 
we  claim  for  ourselves,  we  had  supposed  the  difference  of  opinioa 
which  has  obtained  between  the  Rector  and  the  congregation  furnish- 
ed no  ground  of  separation,  and  we  were  greatly  surprised  when  we 
first  learned  that  he  thought  otherwise. 

With  regard  to  "Public  Balls.  Circuses  and  Theatres,"  we  are  not 
aware  that  the  congregation  generally,  has  determined  any  thing  as  to 
their  propriety  or  expediency,  at  least  any  thing  in  favor  of  the  two 
last  named,  but  whatever  may  be  our  individual  opinion  respecting 
them,  wo  claim  no  right  to  enforce  its  adoption  on  others.  These, 
with  the  dancing  parties, we  conceive  to  belong  to  a  debateable  subject, 
on  which  difference  of  opinion  by  no  means  argues  difference  of  prin- 
ciple. That  abstaining  cannot  be  justly  viewed  as  betokening  "affecta- 
tion of  righteousness  ovt-r  much"  nor  participation  as  proof  of  "slavery 
to  the  world  and  a  love  of  pleasure  in  place  of  love  to  God." 
If  therefore  the  decision  by  generaljpractice  be.as  the  Rector  supposes, 
it  would  furnish  no  necessary  ground  of  separation,  unless  it  can  be 
shown  that  no  opinion  or  practice  of  the  congregation  should  ever  be 
avowed  or  followed, when  in  opposition  to  "the  known  opinion  and  sol- 
emn public  and  private  teaching  of  their  minister ;"  or  in  other  words, 
that  any  matter  on  which  the  Rector  deems  it  his  duty  to  deliver  a  sol- 
emn and  official  opinion,  at  once  ceases  to  be  a  subject  of  discussion 
and  enquiry,-and  by  force  of  his  opinion  becomes  a  point  of  faith,  or 
an  obligatory  rule  of  conduct. 

This  proposition,  we  are  sure  that  the  Rector  will  not  in  terms 
maintain,  and  yet  it  seems  to  us  that  the  reasons  given  for  resigning 
his  situation  do  necessarily  presuppose  a  duty  no  less  extensive,  of 
submission  to  and  conformity  of  opinion  and  practice  with  the  Rector, 
on  the  part  of  the  congregation  ;  to  this  we  can  never  yield  ;  to  this  we 
do  not  think  the  congregation  will,  or  ought  to  yield. 

Shortly  then  we  think  the  matters  referred  to  in  Dr.  Freeman's  pa- 
per, are  not  things  determined  by  the  founder  of  our  faith,  that  they 
belong  to  a  large  class  of  objects  indifferent  in  themselves,  involving 
mere  questions  of  expediency,  in  regard  to  which  it  is  an  error  "to  at- 
tempt to  fix  a  definite  limit  of  universal  obligation,"  and  by  consequence 
that  the  differences  adverted  to  by  the  Rector,  furnish  in  themselves 
no  just  ground  of  interruption  to'full,  affectionate,  mutual,  christian  in- 
tercourse and  communion,  and  are  only  just  cause  of  separation  oa 
account  ofthe  mistaken  views  (as  we  think)  of  tho  Rector  in  relatioa 
ihereto. 


But  we  claim  no  right  to  pass  judgment  on  the  Rector's  opiiiiv^.i^ 
on  these  matters,  nor  to  think  hardly  of  him  because  he  does  not  agree 
in  opinion  with  us;  we  doubt  not  his  sincerity — we  respect  his  mo- 
tues,  we  remember  his  virtues  and  his  services,  and  having  frankly 
stated  the  views  we  entertain  in  common  with  the  great  body  of  the 
congregation,  we  recommended  to  the  vestry  the  adoption  of  the  ac- 
companying resolutions. 

G.  E.  BADGER. 
J.  H.  BRYAN. 

June25tb,  1840. 

The  pastoral  connexion  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Freeman,  with  the  congre- 
gation of  Christ  Church,  which  has  now  subsisted  for  eleven  years, 
having  been  dissolved  by  his  resignation,  tlie  wardens  and^  vestry 
deem  it  proper  on  the  occf  sion  to  declare,  that,  in  their  judgment,  Dr. 
Freeman  during  that  whole  period,  has  discharged  the  duties  of  his 
station  with  eminent  ability  and  faithfulness;  that  he  has  been  great- 
ly instrumental  in  enlarging  the  number/fand  elevating  the  character 
of  the  members  of  the  church  ;  that  for  his  understanding  and  attain- 
ments as  a  Divine,  and  his  performances  as  a  preacher,  the  congrega- 
tion generally  up  to  the  very  moment  of  his  resignation  felt  great  re- 
spect, for  his  person  a  warm  attachment,  and  in  his  piety  entire  confi- 
dence; and  that  the  vestry  have  no  doubt  these  sentiments  were  fully 
merited  by  the  personal  conduct  and  christian  character  of  Dr.  Free- 
man. 5 

Therefore,  Resolved,  That  when  the  resignation  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Freeman  was  presented,  we  felt  the  deepest  regret  that  he  should  for 
any  cause  have  deemed  it  necessary  to  resign  the  charge  of  the  con- 
gregation. 

Resolved,  That  Dr.  Freeman  has  presided  over  this  parish  with 
great  ability  and  uniform  Zealand  fidelity,  and  that  his  ministrations 
have  been  blessed  with  signal  and  very  unusual  success. 


I  (J?- 


A  SERIOI^ 

i>KEACHED  TO  THE  STUDENTS 

OF 

THE  UNITED  BAPTIST  INSTITUTE, 

AT  TAYLORSVILLE,  N.  C, 

JUNE   4th,    18S7, 

BY  REV.  J.  McDANIEL, 

iT  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE  CICERONIAN  SOCIETY  OF  THE  INSTITUTE. 


"KUK,  SPEAK  TO  THIS  YOtJNG  MAN/' 

ZeCH.,    II   CHAP.,    4  V. 


S-ATETTEVILLE : 

PRINTED  AT  THE  OBSERVER  OFFICE. 

1857. 


CICERONIAN  HALL, 
TJ.  B.  Institute,  June  5th,  1857. 
Rev.  James  McDaniel: 

Dear  Sik: 

At  a  meeting  of  the  members  of  the 
"Ciceronian  Society"  of  the  United  Baptist  Institute,  held  to-day, 
the  undersigned  Committee  were  appointed  to  solicit  for  publication,  a 
copy  of  your  very  able  and  eloquent  Sermon  delivered  on  yesterday, 
before  the  Students  and  friends  of  the  Institute.  The  Committee  add 
their  most  earnest  solicitation  that  you  will  comply  with  this  request, 
and  gratify  the  wishes  of  all. 

With  sentiments  of  the  highest  esteem  and  respect, 
We  have  the  honor  to  be, 

W.  H.  PEEBLES, 
E.  MARTIN, 
W.  C.  THOMAS, 

Committee. 


June  5th,  1857. 

Dear  Young  Gentlemen: 

I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  your  Note  of  this  date,  requesting  for  publication,  a  copy  of 
my  Sermon  delivered  on  yesterday.  I  have  hitherto  invariably  de- 
clined compliance  with  such  requests,  conscious  that  my  Discourses 
cannot  appear  to  as  much  advantage  in  print,  as  in  the  delivery  of  them. 
But  my  timidity  is,  in  this  instance,  greatly  overcome  by  the  very 
gentlemanly  and  courteous  attention  you  have  bestowed  on  me  during 
my  visit, — by  the  warm  acceptance  of  my  Discourse,  you  have  mani- 
fested, and  by  the  expressed  desire  of  many  of  your  friends  with  you, 
to  have  it  published.  I  therefore  yield  and  give  it  to  you,  hoping  that 
when  the  head  that  composed  it  shall  lie  low  in  the  grave — when  the 
heart  that  conceived  it  shall  beat  no  more — when  the  tongue  that  uttered 
it  shall  be  hushed  in  everlasting  silence,  this  Sermon  may  be  to  you, 
and  The  Platonic  Society,  and  others,  as  my  affectionate  memento. 

With  sentiments  of  very  high  esteem, 

I  am  your  ob't  servant, 

J.  McDANIEL. 
Messrs.  W.  H.  Peebles,  E.  Martin,  W.  C.  Thomas. 


SERMON. 


Zechabiah,  li  chap.,  4tli  t. 
"Run,  speak  to  this  young  man." 

Man,  the  greatest  visible  work  of  Jehovah's  hands,  was 
obviously  designed  for  usefulness  and  happiness.  This 
divinely  purposed  state  is  an  attainment,  the  way  and 
means  to  which,  is  the  construction  of  proper  character. 
It  is  a  fact  manifest  to  all,  and  experienced  by  many, 
that  wicked  character  is  the  hane  alike  of  usefulness  and 
happiness.  "Evil  communications  corrupt  good  man- 
ners," is  a  truth  demonstrated  before  our  eyes  every  day. 
And  while,  like  "the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  dark- 
ness," vice  strews  its  pathway  with  injuries  to  others,  it 
renders  its  possessor  unhappy.  A  heathen  philosopher, 
guided  only  by  the  light  of  reason  and  the  impress  of  ex- 
perience, once  said.  Nemo  malus  felix — no  wicked  man 
is  happy.  And  the  voice  from  heaven  confirms  that  sen- 
timent, saying  "There  is  no  peace,  saith  the  Lord,  unto 
the  wicked.  The  way  of  transgressors  is  hard.''^  On  the 
other  hand,  virtuous,  pious  character  insures  both  useful- 
ness and  happiness.  "The  fruit  of  the  righteous  is  a  tree 
of  /i/e."  "He  that  walketh  with  wise  men  shall  be  wise." 
While  virtuous  character  benefits  others,  it  blesses  the 
possessor  himself  A  sage  of  the  world  long  ago  uttered 
the  truth,  that  ''''virtue  is  its  own  reward.''^  Solomon,  the 
greatest  king  and  wisest  man  that  ever  lived,  (our  Sa- 
viour excepted,)  and  who  had  fully  tried  every  accessi- 
ble prospective,  source  and  means  of  happiness,  to  be 
found  in  all  the  sphere  of  irreligion — having  testified  that 
"all  is  vanity  of  vanities,  and  vexation  of  spirit," — after 


a  due  trial  of  the  way  of  virtue,  said,  "Her  ways  are 
ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths  are  peace."  Je- 
sus, the  Great  Teacher  from  God,  says  "My  yoke  is 
easy — my  burden  light:  Learn  of  me,  and  ye  shall  find 
rest  imto  your  souls." 

Now,  that  character  which  is  the  foundation,  way  and 
means  of  usefulness  and  happiness,  is  not  a  natural  or  he- 
reditary possession,  neither  a  fortuitous  accident,  nor  yet 
a  merely  sovereign  bestowment  by  the  Great  Creator; 
but  a  structure,  in  which  are  brought  into  requisition  the 
volition  and  agency  of  man,  under  the  favoring  aid  of 
God.  It  is  not  an  instantaneous  work,  achieved  by  a 
wish  or  a  solitary  effort,  but  a  progressive  work,  requir- 
ing the  proper  and  habitual  exercise  of  those  noble  fa- 
culties with  which  we  are  endowed,  and  because  of  which 
we  are  but  a  little  lower  than  the  Angels.  The  funda- 
mental principles  of  character  are,  for  the  most  part, 
wrought  out  in  early  life,  in  the  season  of  youth.  The 
sagacious  Bard  has  truthfully  sung — 

"Just  as  the  twig  is  bent, 
The  tree's  inclined:" 

And  a  voice,  still  more  reliable,  sounds  from  heaven, 
saying  "Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and 
when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it."  Education, 
by  a  Divine  arrangement,  holds  a  grand  position  and  plas- 
tic office  in  the  formation  and  structure  of  character. 
Inasmuch,  therefore,  as  this  work  commences  in  early 
life,  and  Education  fills  such  an  important  office  in  it, 
haste  should  be  exercised  to  impart  to  the  young,  appro- 
priate instruction.  ^^Run,  speak  to  this  young  man." 
My  theme  is.   The  instruction  appropriate  to  a 

YOUNG  MAN. 

I.  Adopt  the  Bible  supremely  as  the  Text  Book  of 
life  and  character.     On  going  forth  to  the  work  of  life, 


every  youth  ought  to  heed  the  kindly  voice  which  ad- 
dresses him  from  heaven,  saying,  "See  that  thou  make 
all  things  according  to  the  pattern  showed  thee  in  the 
mount.''''  "Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his 
way?  By  taking  heed  thereto,  according  to  Thy  Word?^ 
*'To  the  Law  and  to  the  Testimony;  if  they  speak  not 
according  to  this  Word,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light 
in  them."  I  might  construct  a  Babel  of  Scriptural  evi- 
dence, that  the  Bible  is  the  great  Text  Book  of  life  and 
character,  given  by  God  in  His  grace  to  man.  These 
quotations,  already  submitted,  are  deemed  sufficient  to 
establish  this  point. 

We  are  accustomed  to  value  a  text  book  according  to 
the  celebrity  of  its  author.  Here  then  is  one,  that  chal- 
lenges universal  and  supreme  regard. 

"Thifi  is  the  Judge  that  ends  the  strife, 

Where  wit  and  reason  fail; 
This  18  a  safe,  unerring  guide, 

Through  all  thi«  gloomy  vale." 

On  its  excellences  and  merits  I  might  descant,  until  the 
•sun  might  hide  himself  behind  the  western  hills,  and  yet 
the  half  would  not  be  told.  This  is  a  theme  under  which 
an  Angel's  tongue  would  falter:  it  is  as  high  as  heaven, 
and  boundless  as  infinit}'^!  The  best,  the  most  noble,  the 
most  desirable  constituents  of  character,  are  to  be  derived 
from  a  conformity  to  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  This 
will  impart  to  the  mind  an  elevation  and  expansion,  far 
superior  to  all  human  productions.  The  reason  is  two- 
fold: First,  it  brings  the  mind  into  contact  with  the  most 
stupendous  and  sublime  truths  and  things,  in  association 
with  which  it  partakes  of  their  nature.  And  secondly, 
there  is,  by  the  Almighty,  deposited  in  Scriptural  truths 
and  duties,  a  mysterious,  hidden  virtue  and  power,  pecu- 
liar to  them  alone.  There  is  in  them  something  like  a 
Divinity,  in  habitual  association  with  which,  the  individ- 
im\  will  partake  of  the  excellence,  as  Moses  caught  the 


8 

Divine  glory  on  his  countenance,  when  in  converse  with 
God  on  Mount  Sinai. 

Pubhc  opinion  and  popular  example  may,  and  will,  vie 
with  the  Bible  for  your  preference.  Each  will  set  forth 
a  form  of  character,  which  may  be  commended  as  suffi- 
cient for  your  aspiration.  But,  though  public  opinion  and 
popular  example  may  be  considerably  under  the  plastic  in- 
fluence of  Biblical  teaching,  yet  you  will  no  where  find 
them  in  sufficient  harmony  with  it,  to  justify  you  in  re- 
garding them  as  text  books  of  hfe  and  character.  On 
the  contrary,  very  much  that  is  "highly  esteemed  among 
men  is  an  abomination  in  the  sight  of  God."  Multitudes 
require  no  other  commendation  of  a  thing,  than  the  sim- 
ple sanction  o^ public  opinion  or  popular  example;  yet  let 
it  be  remembered,  that  this  is  no  law  or  standard  of  cha- 
racter, however  received  and  honored  as  such  it  may  be. 
"The  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God!  Who- 
soever, therefore,  will  be  the  friend  of  the  world,  is  the 
enemy  of  God."  The  sentiment  of  the  Poet  should  be 
yours — 

"Happy,  if  Thou,  my  God,  approve, 
Though  all  beside  eondemni" 

And  ever  bear  in  mind,  that  the  Bible  never  accommot- 
dates  men.  It  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  Its  form  or 
pattern  is  immutable — its  requisitions  are  established — 
they  are  never  compromised  to  the  tastes,  inclinations^ 
wishes  or  circumstances  of  men.  Any  attempt  to  compro- 
mise these  requirements,  is  fraught  with  tremendous  dan- 
ger. God  has  placed  around  His  Word,  a  cherubic  guard, 
to  prevent  any,  and  every  attempt  to  change  it.  "If  any 
man  shall  add  unto  these  things,  God  shall  add  unto  him 
the  plogurs  that  are  written  in  this  Book:  if  any  man 
shall  take  away  from  the  words  of  the  Book  of  this 
prophecy,  God  shall  take  away  his  part  out  of  the  Book 
of  life."    "The  word  that  I  have  spoken,  the  same  shall 


judge  him  in  the  last  day."  The  Bible  therefore  is,  and 
ever  will  remain,  while  the  world  stands,  the  great  Text 
Book  of  life  and  character.  "Run,  speak  to  this  young 
man,"  that  he  adopt  the  teaching  of  the  Bible  supremely^ 

II.  Adopt  as  a  fundamental  principle,  the  recognition 
of  %ionr  dependence  on  God.  It  is  "in  him  that  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being."  All  our  springs  are  in 
him.  "F2xcept  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor  in 
vain  that  huild  it:  Except  the  Lord  keep  the  City,  the 
watchman  waketh  in  vain."  No  man  is  independent  of 
God  in  the  very  least  particular.  Whatever  capacities 
the  Creator  has  given  to  man, — whatever  freedom  in 
agency,  still  every  where,  and  in  every  thing,  he  is  de- 
pendent on  God.  He  cannot  create  for  himself  one 
breath — he  cannot  add  one  cubit  to  his  stature — he  can- 
not form  or  control  one  event  without  God.  Say  not 
that  there  are  many  men  who  accumulate  wealthy  make 
great  advances  in  science,  attain  unto  high  worldly  dis' 
tinctions,  and  yet  do  not  recognise  their  dependence  on 
God.  All  this  may  be  true,  but  it  does  not  prove  that 
they  are  not  dependent  on  God;  neither  does  it  prove, 
that  the  ouUt  involved  in  this  forgetfulness  and  disregard 
of  God  is  not  fe'ir/ul,  ;md  in  many  instances,  ruinous  to 
those  by  whom  it  is  indulged.  GoJ  is  slow  to  anger,  and 
of  much  long  suffering,  not  willing  that  any  should  perish; 
and  he  deals  kindly  with  men  even  while  they  are  treasur- 
ing up  to  themselves  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath! 
And  should  this  goodness  be  presumptuously  perverted 
into  a  reason  and  a  cause  of  contempt  of  him?  Is  such  a 
character  to  be  coveted  by  rational  beings,  lovers  of  hap- 
piness, and  expectants  of  a  future  retribution?  The  very 
thought  of  possessing  a  character,  branded  with  the  dis^ 
regard  of  our  dep'^ndence  on  God,  ought  to  cause  pale- 
ness to  gather  on  the  cheek,  and  trembling  to  seize  the 


10 

limbs,  such  as  the  sight  of  the  mysterious  hand  on  the 
wall  of  the  palace,  produced  on  the  impious  King!         Wl^ 

Engrave  on  your  mind,  then,  young  gentlemen,  as  with 
a  diamond-pen,  a  recognition  of  your  dependence  on 
God.  Even  in  the  dark  ages  of  the  world,  the  recogni- 
tion of  dependence  on  Divine  agency,  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  highest  virtues,  and  most  excellent  principles. 
As  evidence  of  this  fact,  a  distinguished  Scholar  has  fur- 
nished a  corresponding  sentiment,  uttered,  as  he  tells  us, 
by  Pliny  in  his  panegyric  on  Trajan*.  Both  Greeks  and 
Romans  held  the  sentiment  in  such  high  admiration,  that 
frequent  allusion  to  it  is  found  in  their  most  valued 
writings.  And  let  it  never  be  said  that  young  gentlemen, 
collecting  materials  for  the  construction  of  noble  and 
excellent  character,  in  the  19th  century,  and  under  ad- 
vantages far  surpassing  those  of  any  former  age  of  the 
world,  overlooked  or  disregarded  this  one,  so  great  and 
so  important!  Ever  remember,  that  a  hundred,  a  thou- 
sand, or  ten  thousand  years  hence,  you  will  be  as  de- 
pendent on  God,  as  at  the  present  moment.  To  what- 
ever part  of  God's  empire  you  may  go,  your  dependence 
will  never  be  diminished.  The  treatment  you  may  ex- 
pect at  the  hands  of  your  Creator,  will  depend  on  the 
agreement  or  disagreement,  which  may  exist  between 
your  character  and  his  commands!  "Run,  speak  to  this 
young  man,"  that  he  duly  regard  his  dependence  on  God. 

III.  Adopt  a  manly,  magnanimous ^  prompt,  determined 
performance  of  what  is  right.  Men  often  know  the  right 
and  approve  it  too;  yet  have  not  the  moral  courage  to  do 
it.  Pilate  was  convinced  of  the  Saviour's  innocence,  yet 
he  dared  not  to  release  him.  Agrippa  knew  the  superior 
excellence  of  the  Christian  religion,  but  he  had  not  the 

*  Nihil  rite,  nibilque  provideuter  homines,  sine  Deorum  imraortalium  ope, 
consilio,  honore,  auspicarcnter.  [This  and  other  Latin  Notes  were  not  spoken 
in  the  delivery  of  the  Sermon.] 


11 

courage  to  embrace  it.  Many  of  the  Scribes  and  Pha- 
risees knew  that  Jesus  was  the  promised  Messiah,  but 
they  were  afraid  to  confess  him.  A  cowardly^  vacillat- 
ing spirit,  that  crouches  to  the  known  wrong,  and  hesi- 
tates to  do  right  in  the  face  of  danger,  is  as  great  a  re- 
proach to  any  person's  character,  as  it  is  criminal  and 
hateful  in  the  sight  of  God.  This  has  been,  in  every 
age,  the  enemy  of  virtue  and  piety.  It  ought  to  be 
abominated  wherever  seen.  A  vain  adulation  may  be 
its  present  reward,  as  in  the  case  of  Pilate,  Agrippa, 
Herod,  and  many  others;  but  this,  like  ihQ  feHivities  and 
honors,  bestowed  by  the  Persians  on  a  conquered  General, 
for  three  successive  days  prior  to  his  execution,  is  only 
a  pompous  prelude  to  ruin.  But  for  this  hateful  coward- 
ice of  spirit,  that  shrinks  from  confronting  error,  and  turns 
traitor  against  the  truth,  never  would  our  world  have 
been  cursed  with  multitudes  of  those  evils  which  have 
obtained  dominion,  and  are  producing  effects  over  which, 
the  pious  heart  heaves  a  pensive  sigh. 

But,  while  to  this  detestable  cowardice  is  attributable 
the  successful  establishment  of  many  of  the  greatest  evils 
that  afflict  society,  and  mar  the  true  glory  and  happiness 
of  man,  to  that  noble,  magnanimous  spirit,  which  dares 
to  do  right,  cost  what  it  may,  is  attributable  the  intro- 
duction, perpetuation  and  diffusion  of  those  principles, 
which  give  to  the  world  what  moral  glory  it  possesses, 
and  to  communities,  whatever  of  loveliness  they  exhibit. 
As  illustrious  examples  of  it,  for  your  imitation,  I  point 
you  to  the  history  of  Joseph,  who,  when  allured  to  do 
wrong,  in  a  very  powerful  manner,  said,  "How  then  can 
I  do  this  great  wickedness,  and  sin  against  God":  to  Mi- 
cah  the  prophet,  who  dared  to  prophesy  the  truth  to  the 
king,  though  it  cost  him  imprisonment  and  suffering:  to 
Daniel,  who  would  not  swerve  from  duty,  though  it 
caused  him  to  be  cast  into  the  lions'  den:  to  the  three 


12 

Hebrews,  who  refused  to  bow  down  to  the  image  which 
the  king  had  set  up,  though,  as  the  consequence  of  their 
refusal,  they  were  cast  into  a  fiery  furnace,  heated  seven 
times  hotter  than  it  was  wont  to  be  heated:  to  Moses, 
the  illustrious  leader  of  Israel,  who  chose  rather  to  suffer 
affliction  with  the  people  of  God,  than  to  possess  the 
Egyptian  monarch's  crown:  to  Paul,  and  the  Apostles 
of  our  Lord,  who,  when  they  suffered  for  the  truth,  re- 
joiced that  they  were  counted  worthy  to  suffer  in  such 
a  cause.  These,  and  many  others  who  adorn  the  pages 
of  history,  possessed  and  exhibited  that  noble  courage, 
which  has  encircled  their  character  with  a  glory  untar- 
nished by  time,  and  enriched  the  world,  in  all  coming 
ages,  by  the  principles  they  have  transmitted,  and  the  cx- 
ample  they  have  presented.  "Run,  speak  to  this  young 
man,"  that  he  be  bold  to  embrace,  vindicate  and  prac- 
tice, at  all  hazards,  what  is  right. 

IV.  Dare  to  think  with  personal  independence — to 
make  deductions  and  form  conclusions  for  yourselves.  It 
is  an  evil  of  wide-spreading  influence  and  much  to  be 
deplored,  that  so  few  venture  to  think  for  themselves.  A 
few  do  the  thinking  for  the  mass,  in  reference  to  almost 
all  important  matters.  And  it  is  to  be  apprehended  that 
this  is  a  growing,  rather  than  declining  evil.  In  propor- 
tion to  the  facilities  of  information  possessed  by  any  peo- 
ple, ought  they  to  think  for  themselves.  We  object  not, 
to  all  due  deference  being  paid  to  the  opinions  of  others; 
but  we  do  protest  against  the  too  prevalent  custom,  of 
taking  the  opinions  of  others  without  due  investigation. 
A  few  leading  minds,  in  State  and  Church,  exert  over  the 
mass,  the  same  moulding  power,  that  the  potter  exerts 
over  the  clay,  to  form  such  a  vessel  as  he  pleases.  There 
are  thousands  of  clamorous  partisans,  who  have  not  one 
idea  or  reason  for  the  system  they  embrace  and  advocate. 


13 

except  such  as  has  been  formed  and  presented  to  them 
by  their  admired  leaders.  They  have  no  distinct  know- 
ledge whether  their  system  is  right  or  wrongs  never  hav- 
ing duly  investigated  the  subject.  There  are  nominal 
Literati,  who  cannot  solve  a  problem,  that  is  not  in  the 
text  book  they  have  studied:  parrot-like  Linguists,  who 
cannot  translate  any  sentence  involving  difficulty,  except 
it  be  in  the  book  they  have  well  nigh  worn  out  by  long 
usage.  There  are  multitudes  of  religionists,  who  have 
no  reason  for  the  system  they  adopt,  except  that  their 
teachers,  in  whose  judgment  they  have  implicit  confi- 
dence, declare  it  to  be  correct.  Opinions  on  almost  all 
important  subjects,  are  received  by  very  many,  from  some 
leading  spirits,  with  as  little  hesitation  as  the  young  bird 
receives  the  food  offered  by  the  dam,  whether  it  be  a 
spider  or  a  worm.  This  is  a  sore  evil  under  the  sun, 
and  tends  to  multiply  and  perpetuate  unhappy  diversity, 
against  which  the  Saviour  so  fervently  prayed,  just  before 
His  death. 

The  common  idea  of  Education  entertained  among 
men,  is,  that  it  is  a  putting  into.  And  there  are  many, 
said  to  be  educated  men,  who  only  have  the  little  He- 
brew, Greek,  Latin,  French,  &c.,  together  with  the  few 
scraps  of  Mathematics  and  Sciences,  which  have  been 
infused  or  put  into  their  memories,  by  their  teachers  or 
class-mates.  No  doubt  there  are  those  who  could  not 
correctly  translate  their  Diploma,  never  having  seen,  or 
heard  a  translation  of  it,  given  by  their  teachers,  or  by 
some  other  person.  But  the  correct  idea  of  Education 
is,  that  it  is  a  drawing  out.  The  word  Educo,  from 
which  it  is  derived,  means  to  draw  out.  By  education 
the  powers  of  the  mind  are  disciplined,  and  the  individu- 
al is  prepared  to  think  and  reason  independently.  The 
Bereans  were  commended  by  God  for  thinking  for  them- 
selves, and  for  investigating  what  was  submitted  to  them 


14 

for  their  adoption.  And  they  stand  as  noble  models  for 
your  imitation.  "Run,  speak  to  this  young  man,"  to 
think  and  reason  with  proper  independence. 

V.  Adopt  a  principle  oi  modesty  and  courtesy.  There 
is  in  the  human  mind  naturally  a  disposition  to  vanity^ 
pomposity  and  arrogance.  Too  many,  alas!  on  the  attain- 
ment of  some  considerable  distinction  in  wealth  or  learn- 
ing, &:c.  betray  the  possession  of  this  disposition.  Every 
department  of  pubUc  life  is  affected  by  this  evil.  The 
happiness  of  social  intercourse  in  society  is  often  spoiled 
by  it.  One  vain,  pompous,  arrogant  person,  in  the  social 
circle,  like  the  dead  fly  in  the  box  of  ointment,  destroys, 
to  a  great  extent,  the  fragrance  of  enjoyment  through  all 
the  circle.  The  dignity  of  the  Legislative  Council,  or  of 
the  Bar,  is  often  injured  by  a  display  of  pomposity.  The 
very  end  to  which  the  actors  in  the  fulsome  scene  aspire, 
is  defeated  by  their  own  vanity  or  arrogance.  The  glory 
of  the  pulpit  ministrations  is  often  destroyed,  and  they 
are  made  the  ministrations  of  Death,  instead  of  Life,  by 
a  detestable  show  of  pomposity  or  vanity.  This  has  no 
more  business  in  the  sphere  of  Learning,  or  Piety,  than 
Satan  had  in  Paradise.  It  is  a  perversion  of  both,  and 
ought  to  be  abominated  wherever  seen;  and  it  ought  to 
subject,  to  general  disgust,  the  infatuated  creature  who 
figures  in  its  exhibition.  Ever  exhibit  modesty,  whatever 
the  position  you  may  occupy. 

And  remember  that  without  courtesy,  there  can  be  no 
proper  character.  This  is  a  cheap  excellence,  though  so 
great  and  important.  It  costs  a  man  but  little  to  be 
courteous;  and  yet  its  rewards  are  far  richer  than  is  gene- 
rally imagined.  Those  widely  err  in  their  judgment,  who 
suppose  that  a  man  compromises  his  dignity  or  excel- 
lence by  being  courteous,  even  towards  those  who  are 
obviously  his   inferiors   in   the   circumstances   of  life. 


15 

Jesus,  our  Great  Exemplar,  was  courteous — so  much  so, 
that  he  was  called  the  Friend  of  sinners.  There  is  a 
Pharisaical  self-importance  and  bigotry  possessed  by 
many,  which  constitutes  them  cold,  impolite,  austere  and 
unsociable  towards  any  and  all,  except  a  certain  few,  to- 
wards whom,  they  think  it  a  little  honor  to  be  polite. 
Such  persons  possess  a  very  meagre  share  of  general  es- 
teem while  they  live,  and  when  they  end  their  course  on 
earth,  they  descend  to  their  graves  generally,  "unwept 
and  unsung."  "Run,  speak  to  this  young  man,"  that  he 
be  modest  and  courteous. 

VI.  See  that  the  influence  which  you  exert  on  others, 
be  salutary.  Man  is  a  social  Being.  We  are  suscep- 
tible of  influence  from  one  another.  Mind  acts  on  mind. 
Solomon  says  "One  sinner  destroy eth  much  good."  Your 
influence  will  be  a  mighty  agent  for  good  or  evil.  Learn- 
ing is  power,  and  will  impart  that  power  to  your  influ- 
ence. If  it  be  seen  that  you,  who  have  such  facilities  of 
knowing  what  is  ri^ht,  and  wrong, — ^what  is  commen- 
dable, and  what  is  reprehensible;  and  who,  because  of 
these  advantages  of  knowledge,  are  expected  to  be 
models  of  propriety,  and  criterions  of  what  may,  or  may 
not  be  adopted: — if  it  be  seen  that  you  act  according  to 
very  latitudinarian  principles,  and  with  but  little  scrupu- 
lousness about  the  right,  or  the  wrong,  it  will  have  a 
powerful  effect  on  the  judgment  and  conduct  of  others. 
Whether  you  design  it  so  or  not,  your  influence  will  im- 
part a  power,  that  will  tell  mightily  for  virtue  or  vice,  on 
the  character  of  others.  You  are  held  responsible  by 
God,  for  the  effects  of  your  influence.  This  responsi- 
bility is  entirely  overlooked  by  many.  In  estimating 
their  life  and  character,  they  have  too  little  regard  to  its 
effects  on  others. 

But  this  is  indeed,  a  momentous  particular  for  your 


16 

consideration.  Your  influence  will  go  far  beyond  your 
individual  self — it  will  enter  circles  of  society,  and  per- 
meate spheres  of  mind,  of  which  you  will  have  no  ade-' 
quate  knowledge,  until  in  eternity,  the  whole  panoramic 
scene  will  pass  before  your  astonished  vision.  You  are 
not  like  the  Flower,  which  springs  and  blooms  on  some 
desert  wild,  unseen  by  human  eye, — whose  fragrance 
wastes  and  dies,  on  the  lonely,  passing  breeze: — no,  your 
life  and  character  will  be  seen, — the  influence  emitted 
from  it,  will  be  inhaled  by  others,  and  will  become  in 
them,  elements  of  good  or  evil.  You  are  to  live,  not  with 
reference  to  yourselves  alone,  but  also  with  reference  to 
others. 

Give  diligence  then,  that  your  influence  on  others,  be 
like  that  stream  which  the  Prophet  saw,  which  "ran  down 
into  the  Desert  and  into  the  sea,  and  being  brought  forth 
into  the  sea,"  the  waters  of  the  sea  were  thereby  healed. 
Or,  hke  that  wonderous  Tree,  which,  Moses,  by  Divine 
instruction,  cast  into  the  bitter  waters  of  Marah,  and 
they  were  thereby  "made  sweet."  Thus  will  you  be 
honored  and  loved;  and  when  the  memory  of  those  who 
have  been  only  walking  pestilences  in  society,  shall  rot 
in  infamy,  yours  will  be  embalmed  in  perpetual  esteem. 
"Run,  speak  to  this  young  man,"  that  he  regard  the  in- 
fluence he  exerts  on  others. 

VII.  Determine  on  the  attainment  of  true  and  eminent 
Piety.  "The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wis- 
dom: a  good  understanding  have  all  they  that  do  his  com- 
mandments. Remember  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of 
thy  youth,  while  the  evil  days  come  not,  nor  the  years 
draw  nigh,  T<%en  thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no  pleasure  in 
them.  Seek  ye,  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his 
righteousness.  Blessed  are  they  that  do  his  command- 
ments, that  they  may  have  a  right  to  the  Tree  of  Life, 


17 

and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  City."  Thus 
you  are  addressed  by  the  voice  from  heaven.  All  the  in- 
struction I  have  already  given  you,  may,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  be  adopted,  and  a  character  may  thereby  be  con- 
structed, that  will  excite  the  admiration  of  all  virtuous 
persons,  and  on  which  an  Angel,  as  he  looks,  may  love; 
and  yet  the  crowning  excellence  be  lacking.  True,  emi- 
nent Piety  is  the  perfection  of  character.  But,  beware 
oi  modern,  nominal  Piety,  which,  in  very  many  instances, 
is  like  the  figure  of  a  person,  well-proportioned,  hand- 
somely dressed,  in  all  the  comehness  of  religious  drapery, 
yet  without  a  soul  or  life.  Let  not  theybrm  of  godliness 
suffice  for  you.  See  that  the  Religion  on  which  you 
rely  for  safety  and  happiness,  demonstrates  its  real  ex- 
istence and  power  in  the  soul,  by  a  life  of  strict  obedience 
to  God's  Law.  The  Great  Teacher  from  God  says,  "If 
any  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  sayings.  Ye  are  my 
friends,  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command  you."  And  the 
inspired  Apostle  says,  "This  is  the  love  of  God,  that  we 
keep  his  commandments.  Show  me  thy  faith  without 
thy  works,  and  I  will  show  you  my  faith  by  my  works. 
Faith  without  works  is  dead." 

A  person  is  to  know  himself  to  be  a  christian,  only  so 
far  as  his  religion  exerts  in  him,  a  sufficient  power  to 
lead  him  to  ohey  God's  requirements.  "Why  call  ye  me, 
Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the  things  I  command  you?  Not 
every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  Give  therefore,  no  heed 
to  that  fabulous  Theology,  which  teaches  that  there  are 
non-essentials  in  the  requirements  of  God's  word.  O 
what  presumption  it  is,  to  arraign  the  wisdom  and  good- 
ness of  God,  by  supposing  that  he  has  appointed  or  com- 
manded any  thing,  that  is  not  of  very  grave  and  great 
importance!    Hear  the  Great  Law-giver  saying,  "Who- 

2 


18 

soever  therefore  shall  break  one  of  tJiese  least  command- 
ments, and  shall  teach  men  so,  he  shall  be  called  least  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Does  it  appear  from  this  dec- 
laration of  him,  in  whose  lips  there  was  no  guile,  that 
there  are  any  non-essentials  in  God's  requirements;  when 
the  violation  of  the  least  one  of  them,  if  deliberately  per- 
petrated, will  entail  on  the  transgressor  such  an  awful 
disadvantage,  that  the  compassionate  Saviour  has  warned 
men  of  it,  that  they  may  avoid  it?  Ah,  remember  that 
the  least  commandment  of  God,  will,  in  eternity,  be  seen 
possessed  of  an  importance,  towering  to  an  infinite 
height,  and  of  dimensions,  which  will  stagger  the  soul  of 
the  neglector,  so  that  he  will  covet  concealment  from  the 
dread  responsibilities  of  such  neglect,  in  some  everlasting 
sepulchre,  not  obsequious  to  the  Judgment  summons! 
Be  sure  that  you  seek  and  embrace  true  Religion,  pro- 
ducing scriptural  fruits,  as  evidences  of  its  reality  and 
power. 

This  will  be  protective  in  the  present  life.  It  institutes 
restraints,  which  keep  the  possessor  from  those  pursuits 
and  indulgences,  that  soon  or  late,  would  inevitably  bring 
distress  and  anguish  on  the  soul.  It  likewise  insures 
Angehc  guardian-ship;  for  it  is  written,  "The  Angel  of 
the  Lord  encampeth  round  about  them  that  fear  him,  and 
delivereth  them."  Moreover,  Jesus  has  pledged  himself 
to  their  safety: — "My  Father  which  gave  them  me,  is 
greater  than  all;  and  no  man  is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of 
my  Father's  hand.  I  and  my  Father  are  one."  "My 
sheep  hear  my  voice,  and  I  know  them,  and  they  follow 
me:  And  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life;  and  they  shall  never 
perish,  neither  shall  any  man  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand." 
In  true  Religion  therefore,  you  will  realize  the  best  safe- 
guard through  all  this  perilous  state! 

It  is  likewise,  the  source  of  the  greatest,  present  en- 
joyment.   Men  dream  of  richer  pleasure,  elsewhere,  than 


19 

in  the  service  of  God.  The  Prodigal  son  had  brilHant 
anticipations  of  greater  advantages,  and  better  enter- 
tainment, than  were  to  be  found  in  his  Father's  house. 
He  went  forth  in  pursuit  of  these  vain  shadows — he  tra- 
versed this  dream  to  satisfy  his  soul's  desires,  until  at 
length,  he  awoke  in  wretched  disappointment,  far,  far 
away  from  the  good  he  craved!  "When  he  came  to 
himself  he  said,  how  many  hired  servants  of  my  Father, 
have  bread  enough,  and  to  spare,  and  I  perish  with  hun- 
ger. I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father."  He  returned — 
his  Father  saw  him  coming  home,  he  ran,  embraced,  and 
kissed  his  long  lost  son.  His  tattered  garments  were  ex- 
changed for  the  best  robe— a  sumptuous  feast  was  spread 
to  relieve  his  hunger — and  friends  rejoiced  over  his  re- 
turn. Never,  never,  was  he  so  happy  in  any  state,  in 
any  place,  in  all  the  circle  of  his  prodigality,  as  when  he 
had  arrived  at  home,  and  was  settled  in  his  Father's 
family!  So  it  will  ever  be  found,  that  the  highest,  the 
richest  enjoyment  to  be  found  in  this  life,  is  in  the  ser- 
vice and  ways  of  God.  "Godliness  is  profitable  unto  all 
things,  having  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and  of  that 
which  is  to  come." 

But,  the  chief  blessedness  and  advantage  of  true,  and 
eminent  Piety  will  be  reahzed  in  eternity.  The  end 
crowns  the  action.  The  present  scene  of  things  will  at 
length  terminate.  The  Arch-angel  with  the  judgment- 
trump  in  hand,  will  appear  on  the  wing,  descending  from 
heaven  to  this  world!  As  he  comes,  he  will  blow  the 
tremendous  blast,  which  will  pubhsh  the  Decree  of  the 
Great  God, — the  end  of  all  things  is  come!  At  the  dread 
sound,  the  curtain  of  Time  will  drop,  and  Nature  stand 
aghast!  The  sun  in  the  heavens — stop  his  course  and 
drop  his  beams  in  endless  night!  The  moon,  wrapped 
in  a  crimson  shroud — shine  no  more!  The  stars,  ex- 
tinguished— fall  from  their  orbits,  as  the  ripe  figs  from  the 


20 

tree  when  shaken  by  a  mighty  wind!  The  sea — roar  a 
solemn  dirge,  of  wild  death  march  waves,  upheaving,  and 
bearing  on  the  foaming  billows,  its  drowned  milhons  to 
the  wave-lashed  shore!  The  Earth,  reeling  and  quak- 
ing, convulsed  by  rending  earth-quakes, — uncover  her 
entombed  myriads,  and  from  Battle-fields  and  Grave 
Yards,  swarms  of  resuscitated  persons,  awoke  from  the 
slumber  of  ages, — start  into  life,  and  hasten  to  the  awful 
Judgment!  The  world  draped  in  the  sombre  garments 
of  mourning — utter  forth  its  last,  and  death-like  shriek! 
The  stupendous  Fabric  of  Nature,  at  whose  birth,  the 
morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God 
shouted  for  joy, — whose  wonders  have  engaged  the  study, 
and  kindled  the  admiration  of  men  in  all  generations, — 
fall  into  dissolution!  Fire  descending  from  God  out  of 
heaven — ignite,  and  enwrap  the  prostrate  ruins!  O  what 
a  catastrophe!    What  a  sight  to  behold! 

Where  then  will  be  that  vain  show — those  honors, 
riches,  pleasures,  which  allured  so  many  from  the  claims 
of  God?  Gone — all  gone  forever — not  a  vestige  of  them 
left,  except  the  consequences  of  the  inordinate  love,  pur- 
suit, and  embrace  of  them!  Man  will  remain,  with  the 
character  he  has  constructed,  whatever  that  may  be! 
Then  will  be  seen  and  realized,  the  grand  difference  be- 
tween the  righteous  and  the  wicked — between  him  that 
feared  God,  and  him  that  feared  him  not.  Then  will  the 
righteous  receive  their  Diploma,  with  this  brilliant  in- 
scription, "Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  ser- 
vant: Thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things, 

I  WILL  make  thee    ruler   OVER   MANY    THINGS:    ENTER 

THOU  INTO  THE  JOY  OF  THY  Lord!"*  Escortcd  by  An- 
gels, with  Jesus,  their  Great  Teacher  and  Lord  at  the 
head  of  the  majestic  procession,  they  will  enter  upon  the 
everlasting  felicities  of  heaven! 

*Eugc!  serve  bone  et  fidelis;  super  pauga  fuisti  fidelis;  super  multa  te  con- 
stituam:  intra  in  gaudium  domioi  tui. 


21 

But,  the  wicked  who  would  not  heed  instruction*0 
voice,  will  be  driven  away  into  everlasting  sorrow — ex- 
pelled forever  from  the  society  of  the  just,  to  be  the  vic- 
tims of  unending  woe!  When  they  have  passed  the 
awful  gate,  and  entered  the  prison  of  despair,  the  Angel 
of  God  will  turn  the  key, — the  sound  of  the  bolt  as  it 
locks,  will  roll  hke  the  thunder  of  Death  through  the 
soul — then  with  his  mighty  arm,  he  will  cast  that  key, 
far,  far  into  the*abyss  of  oblivion,  there  to  lie  and  rust, 
while  endless  ages  roll  away!  Dark  columns  of  smoke, 
ascending  from  the  miserable  abode,  will  be  the  Diploma 
of  the  accursed,  bearing  in  letters  of  flame,  this  fearful 
inscription,  "The  wages  of  sin  is  Death!"!  These 
dismal  scrolls,  as  they  rise  and  unfold,  emit  the  dread 
sound  of  despair,  the  deep  wailings  of  woe,  incessantly 
uttered  by  the  sufferers,  ^^Lost!  Lost!  Lost!  O,  forever 
lost!"  "Run,  speak  to  this  young  man,"  that  he,  by  all 
means,  become  a  true  christian. 

Dear  young  Gentlemen!  I  have  almost  finished  the 
work,  which  your  preference  has  assigned  me.  Many 
of  us  have  met  for  the  first  time,  aad  when  I  reflect,  that 
in  all  probability  after  we  part,  at  the  close  of  this  oc- 
casion, we  shall  never  all  meet  again  in  this  life,  I  feel 
my  bosom  swell  with  emotion.  Wherever  you  go — ■ 
wherever  you  dwell — whatever  the  position  in  life  you 
may  occupy,  you  will  have  my  tender  regard,  my  warm 
desire  for  your  usefulness,  prosperity,  and  happiness;  and 
when  Life's  educational  course  and  labors  shall  have 
with  us  terminated,  that  we  may  all  meet  at  God's  right 
hand  in  heaven,  where  there  is  fulness  of  joy,  and  where 
there  are  pleasures  forever  more! 

"0,  the  hope,  the  blissful  hope. 
Which  Jesus'  grace  has  given; 
The  hope,  "when  days  and  years  are  past, 
We  all  may  meet  in  heaven!" 

_ii  ■  .■..-■——  ...         1 ^ ^^-. ,. r— ^   -■■--ri       --■      -■- —    II-- -■•' 

f  Stipendia  peccati,  mors! 


22 

Think  of  the  sohcitude  of  your  Parents,  Teachers, 
and  Friends,  for  your  usefulness  and  happiness.  Dis- 
appoint not  their  fond  hopes  and  expectations — wither 
not,  by  any  improper  course,  these  budding  flowers,  on 
which  they  gaze,  in  hope  to  see  them  open  soon  in  at- 
tractive bloom!  This  vast  assembly,  by  their  presence 
on  this  occasion,  show  to  you  the  interest  they  feel  in 
your  success.  Ever  let  them  see  that  you  are  worthy  of 
such  esteem. 

Dear  Instructors  of  these  young  men!  I  congratulate 
you  on  the  success  which  has  thus  far  crowned  your 
labors.  I  gaze  with  pleasure,  on  the  luminous  prospect 
of  still  greater  success,  which  shines  on  the  future  of 
your  work.  Go  on  then,  with  cheerful  hearts  and  ani- 
mated spirits,  in  your  noble  toils.  "Run,  speak  to  this 
young  man." 

And  my  respected  and  strange  audience!  many  of  you, 
I  doubt  not  already  love  the  Saviour.  You  are  my 
kindred,  whoever  you  are — whatever  your  name — where- 
ever  your  home.  Pray  for  the  peace  of  this  Jerusalem! 
Foster  this  Institution,  for  it  will  richly  reward  all  your 
labors  and  expenditures  for  it.  I  know  that  you  feel 
emotions  of  pleasure  in  its  present,  great  prosperity. 
"Tully  acknowledged  the  transports  which  he  felt,  when 
he  saw  the  Laurel  groves  where  Cicero  held  his  dis- 
putations, and  the  Porticoes  at  Athens,  where  Socrates 
taught."  Sharing  with  you,  in  your  present  enjoyment, 
which  is  similar  to  his,  I  can  exclaim  in  the  language  of 
the  Classic  Bard, — "O  fortunati,  quorum  jam  moenia 
surgunt!" — Thrice  happy  ye,  whose  walls  already  rise! 


I  1^- 

THE  OLD  PATHS: 


j^  SEEM:o]sr, 

PREACHED   IN 

ST.  LUKE'S  CHUECH:,  SALISBURY^ 
%  the  Right  Reverend  THOx^AS  ATKINSON,  D.  D., 

JStSHOP   OF   NOETH  CAKOLINA> 

AT  THE  OSDINATION  TO  THE  PRIESTHOOD 

03?  TEE 

B€v.  Messrs.  BEMJAMIN  SWAN  BRONSON,  GEORGE  BADGER  WBTMORE) 
WILLIAM  MURPHY,  and  THOMAS  GOELET  HAUGHTON, 

0]Si   WHIT-SUNDAY  1857j 

DURING  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  DIOCESAN  CONVENTION  OF  N{)RTH  CAROLINA, 
AND   PUBLISHED   BY  THE  REQUEST  OF   THE   CONVENTION. 


PAYETTEVILLE  : 

PRINTED  BY  EDWARD  J.  HALE  &  SON. 

185T. 


SERMON. 


Jekemiah,  6tli  chap.,  16th  verse. 
<'Thus  saith  the  Lord,   Stand  ye  ia  the  ways,  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old 
paths,  wherein  is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for 
your  souls." 

Ill  the  latter  days  of  the  Jewish  Commonwealth,  just  anterior 
to  tlie  Babylonish  Captivity,  among  the  numberless  confusions 
and  miseries  that  gathered  like  a  black  cloud  over  both  Church, 
and  State,  this  was  not  the  least,  that  the  path  of  duty  and  of 
safety  had  become  difficult  to  discern,  even  by  those  who  were 
willing  to  follow  it. 

There  were  men,  indeed,  claiming  to  be  the  Prophets  of  God, 
and  to  speak  in  His  l^ame,  but  they  denied  each  other's  preten- 
sions and  contradicted  each  other's  messages.  Some  cried  Peace, 
Peace,  while  others  said  there  was  no  Peace.  There  were 
Priests  also,  the  ordinarj-  stated  Teachers  of  the  Peoj)le,  (for 
"the  Priests'  lips  should  keep  knowledge,")  but  instead  of  union 
among  these,  violent  discord  and  mutual  denunciation  drove 
them  asunder.  It  is  under  these  circumstances  that  God  coun- 
sels and  indeed  commands  His  people,  to  stand  in  the  ways, 
and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and 
walk  tlierein,  and  thus  find  rest  for  their  souls. 

This,  then,  is  the  sentence  of  Divine  Wisdom:  Since  present 
teachers  differ,  but  it  is  confessed  that  the  past  were  right,  in- 
quire diligently  what  the  ]3ast  taught,  and  follow  their  guidance. 

'Novj-  there  is  a  principle  in  Human  ITature  which  makes  us 
revere  Antiquity  as  such,  and  cling  to  ancient  opinions  and 
usages  merely  because  they  are  ancient.  And  even  this  prin- 
ciple has  its  value,  as  giving  more  consistency  to  our  opinions, 
and  steadfastness  to  our  conduct,  and  consequently  even  this 
ought  not  to  be  eradicated  from  our  nature,  were  such  eradi- 
cation possible.  But  yet  this  mere  abhorrence  of  innovation  is 
scarcely  better  than  a  blind  instinct,  and  may  array  itself  in 
opposition  to  Truth,  as  well  as  to  error;  may  resist  improve- 
ments, as  well  as  withstand  corruptions;  may  assist  in  keeping 
the  worshipper  of  Juggernaut  prostrate  in  the  dust,  while  it 
strengthens  the  follower  of  Jesus  in  holding  on  to  "the  Faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints."    It  is  not  then  on  this  principle 


4 
that  tlie  counsel  of  the  Most  High  to  His  creatnres  rests,  hut 
on  one  not  so  ambiguous,  not  so  liable  to  mislead  us  in  its  ap- 
plication,— on  one  which  is  as  safe  as  it  is  plain.  It  is  on  the 
necessary  consistency  and  harmony  of  Divine  Truth.  Since  it 
was  universally  acknowledged  in  the  time  of  Jeremiah,  that 
the  Patriarchs,  and  the  early  Prophets  of  Israel,  sj)oke  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Prophets  of  later  date  who 
agreed  with  these  undoubted  messengers  of  Almighty  God, 
must  be  received  as  true,  while  they  who  gave  inconsistent 
testimony  must  be  rejected,  because  God  cannot  contradict 
Himself,  and  what  He  speaks  by  one  man,  He  wiU  not  deny 
by  another. 

Now  it  is  clear,  that  we  of  the  present  day  need  the  salutary 
guidance  of  this  Divine  Counsel,  just  as  much  as  the  Israelites 
of  old.  We  too  live  in  a  day  of  perplexity.  The  Prophets  and 
the  Priests  throughout  Christendom  contradict  one  another. 
The  Pomanist  maintains  that  his  is  the  only  true  Catholic 
Church,  and  that  all  beyond  its  pale  are  schismatics  or  here- 
tics, or  both.  The  Greek  believes  no  less  firmly  that  Ms  is  the 
only  true  oxthodox  Conlmunion,  and  that  wdiosoever  adds  the 
Filioque  to  his  creed,  and  lejects  the  communion  of  Infants, 
has  accepted  the  principle  of  Pationalism,  whether  it  carry 
him  a  shorter  or  a  longer  distance.  The  Anglican  contenta 
himself  with  maintaining  that  his  is  the  purest  hrancTi  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  The  Presbyterian,  the  Methodist,  the  Bap- 
tist, the  Quaker,  the  Socinian,  each  claims  to  teach  exact  Chris- 
tian Truth,  which  others,  as  things  seem  to  him,  either  mutilate 
or  alloy.  Since  then  the  trumpet  gives  so  uncertain  a  sound, 
who  in  the  Christian  Host  shall  know  how  to  prepare  for  the 
battle?  How  shall  a  sincere  Christian,  who  seeks  to  know  the 
will  of  God  that  he  may  do  it,  ascertain  that  Holy  will,  amid 
the  strife  of  tongues  and  rage  of  controversy?  To  such  an  one 
God  speaks  now,  as  of  old  in  Jerusalem,  saying,  "Stand  in  the 
ways,  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  Paths." 

And  this  counsel  meets  our  case  even  better  than  that  of  the 
men  of  Judah;  for  their  book  of  Revelation  was  confessedly  in- 
complete. They  rightly  expected  a  greater  Prophet  than  had 
ever  yet  visited  them;  new  messages  from  God  more  weighty, 
more  august,  than  they  or  their  lathers  had  received.  When, 
then,  a  Prophet  propounded  to  them  a  doctrine,  the  only  way 
in  which  they  could  apply  to  it  the  test  of  Anticpiity  was  to 


5 

ask,  was  it  consistent  and  Jiarmonious  witli  what  they  had  al- 
ready received?  It  might  be  different,  and  yet  true.  It  could 
not  be  inconsistent,  and  yet  true.  But  with  ns,  the  test  of  An- 
tiquity is  more  exclusive.  We  must  reject  any  doctrine  which 
is  either  inconsistent  with,  or  different  from,  that  which  has 
come  to  us  once  for  all.  Because,  except  on  the  supposition  of 
Development — a  supposition  to  which  I  shall  hereafter  allude, 
— our  Kevelation  is  full.  The  Church  has  no  Truth  revealed  to 
it,  which  was  not  revealed  in  the  Apostolic  age.  No  Divine 
Utterance  has  reached  it,  since  the  aged  exile  at  Patmos  closed 
the  volume  of  Inspiration,  and  by  the  authority  of  God  an- 
nounced, that  if  any  man  should  add  to  the  words  of  the  pro- 
phecy he  had  been  uttering,  God  would  add  to  him  the  plagues 
written  in  that  book.  Our  Revelation  then  is,  and  long  has 
been,  entire,  absolute,  complete.  What  is  true  in  Religion  this 
day  was  just  as  true  seventeen  centuries  ago.  It  is,  of  course, 
peculiarly  incumbent  on  us  to  ask  for  the  old  ways.  In  Chris- 
tianity none  can  be  the  right  way,  but  the  old  way.  And  it  is 
to  this  test  that  our  Church  submits  her  doctrines,  her  govern- 
ment, and  the  framework  of  her  worship.  In  the  preface  to 
the  Ordinal  she  refers  us  to  Holy  Scripture  and  ancient  Authors. 
In  the  preface  to  the  Prayer  Book  she  tells  us,  that  "she  is  far 
from  intending  to  depart  from  the  Church  of  England,  to  which 
she  acknowledges  that  she  is  indebted  under  God  for  her  first 
foundation  and  a  long  continuance  of  nursing  care  and  protec- 
tion,— to  depart,  I  say,  in  any  essential  point  of  doctrine,  dis- 
cipline, or  worship,  or  further  than  local  circumstances  require. 
Now  the  Church  of  England,  by  the  Canon  of  1571  concerning 
Preachers,  requires  them  not  to  teach  any  thing  to  be  religious- 
ly held  and  believed  by  the  people  but  what  is  agreeable  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  and  collected  out 
of  that  very  doctrine  by  the  Catholic  Fathers  and  ancient  Bish- 
ops. To  the  same  effect  speak  the  great  Authorities  in  the 
Church,  Jewell,  Hooker,  Jackson,  Bromhall,  Hammond,  Bull, 
and  the  like. 

But  some  may  say,  it  ill  becomes  the  Anglican  Church,  or 
our  own,  which  is  derived  from  her,  to  hold  this  language,  since 
that  Anglican  Church  dates  her  very  origin  only  from  the  mid- 
dle of  the  16th  century,  and  owes  the  dew  of  her  birth,  the  very 
breath  of  her  life,  to  a  wicked  King,  a  slavish  people,  and  a 
rebellious  clergy.    This  is  one  of  the  most  frequent  reproaches 


6 

of  the  Romanist  in  liis  denunciations  of  that  Church  which  he 
most  abhors,  because  it  most  efi'ectnally  obstructs  his  progress. 
And  this  too  is  the  language  of  the  Latitudinariaii,  who,  like 
Gallio,  cares  for  none  of  these  things,  and  only  regards  the  po- 
litical, su23erficial  aspect  of  religious  interests.  He  speaks  of 
the  Church  of  England  as  founded  by  Cranmer  and  Ridley  and 
Latimer.  The  Romanist  speaks  of  it  rather  as  the  creation  of 
the  hateful  Henry  8th. 

Is  this  a  just  view  of  the  origin  of  the  Church  of  England, 
from  which  our  own  has  sprung?  If  it  be,  I  admit  that  we,  at 
least,  have  no  right  to  say  to  others,  "stand  in  the  ways  and 
see,  and  ask  for  the  old  Paths,"  until  we  ourselves  have  turned 
from  the  paths  in  which  we  have  been  walking, 

IsTow  one  thing  is  very  certain:  that  if  the  Anglican  Church 
be  a  creature  of  the  16th  century,  her  apologists  and  champions 
are  very  unwise,  for  their  favorite  appeal,  after  Scripture,  is  to 
Antiquity.  They  seek  then  to  be  tried  by  a  method  of  proof 
which  must  condemn  them.  Yet  as  a  body  they  certainly  are 
not  deficient  in  acuteness  or  in  learning.  Hooker  was  neither 
stupid  nor  ignorant;  on  the  contrary,  his  intellect  shines  forth 
to  the  eyes  of  mankind  as  one  of  their  guiding  lights  in  their 
onward  and  upward  progress.  Yet  in  the  third  Book  of  his 
Polity  he  quotes  with  approbation  from  Ireneus,  saying  that 
"the  Church,  though  scattered  through  the  whole  world,  hath 
from  the  Apostles  and  their  Discij^les  received  belief.  Which 
Faith,  the  Church,  spread  far  and  wide,  preserveth  as  if  one 
house  did  contain  them;  these  things  it  equally  embraceth,  as 
though  it  had  one  soul,  one  heart,  and  no  more.  It  publisheth, 
teacheth,  and  delivereth  these  things  with  uniform  consent,  as 
if  God  had  given  it  but  one  tongue.  He  which  among  the 
guides  of  the  Church  is  best  able  to  speak,  uttereth  no  more 
than  this,  and  less  than  this  the  most  sim^jle  doth  not  utter." 
Such  is  Hooker's  view  of  the  unchanging  nature  of  the  true 
Faith.  If  then  he  conceived  his  to  be  new,  how  plainly  he 
condemned  himself. 

Bishop  Jewell,  one  of  the  most  eminent  Theologians  that  Eng- 
land ever  bred,  said  in  his  famous  Cluillenge  Sermon,  that  if 
the  adversaries  of  the  Church  were  able  to  bring  any  sufficient 
sentence  out  of  any  old  Catholic  Doctor  or  Father,  or  out  of 
any  old  General  Council,  or  out  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  any 
example  of  the  Primitive  Church,  in  their  behalf  and  against 


•  7 
tlie  principles  of  the  Church,  in  a  number  of  particulars  -which 
he  names,  that  then  he  would  give  over  and  subscribe  to  them. 
Again,  Bishop  Bull,  whose  Defence  of  the  Nicene  Creed  is 
held  by  the  Universal  Church  as  a  possession  forever,  and  who 
has  evinced  therein  such  immense  learning  and  such  discrimi- 
nating accuracy,  avers  that  whatever  Theological  doctrines  are 
sanctioned  by  the  consent  of  Catholic  Fathers  and  ancient  Bish- 
ops, he  embraces  with  all  reverence.  It  is  to  Antiquity,  in 
short,  as  the  most  authoritative  expounder  of  Scripture,  that 
the  trusted  and  honored  advocates  of  the  Church  of  England 
ever  gladly  appeal.  And  at  the  same  time,  it  is  observable 
that  no  other  body  of  Christians  seems  fond  of  that  appeal  to 
Antiquity.  The  Presbyterians  and  the  Methodists  seem  to 
think  that  from  the  days  of  St.  Paul  to  those  of  Luther  and 
Calvin,  the  Christian  Church  was  hardly  better  than  a  desert 
without  fruit  or  flower;  that  from  Dan  to  Beersheba  all  was 
barrenness.  Their  standard  of  orthodoxy  is  the  naked  text  of 
Scripture,  theoretically  as  understood  by  themselves,  practical- 
ly as  understood  by  their  leaders  and  favorite  commentators. 
For  there  is  a  class  of  persons  with  whom  Thomas  Scott  is  as 
authoritative  as  Thomas  Aquinas  is  with  others. 

The  Pomanists  did,  for  some  time  after  the  Reformation,  con- 
tend strenuously  that  the  voice  of  Antiquity  was  on  their  side. 
But  the  labor  bestowed  on  them  has  not  been  in  vain.  They 
have  been  taught  better,  and  now  their  favorite  Theory  is  that 
of  Development,  that  is,  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  not 
only  are  not  the  same  now  as  formerly,  but  that  they  ought  not  to 
be,  that  they  are  meant  to  enlarge  and  improve  from  Age  to 
Age.  In  opposition  to  these,  the  Anglican  Church  claims  to 
hold  and  teach  that  very  Christian  Faith  which  was  held  and 
taught  by  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  first  and  purest  ages. 
Now  a  Church  with  advocates  so  able  and  so  well-learned, 
which  thus  seeks  to  be  tried  by  Antiquit}'-,  must  have  good 
grounds  for  believing  that  Antiquity  is  not  opposed  to  her. 

But  to  go  more  minutely  into  the  inquiry,  let  us  ask,  in  what 
does  the  continuity  of  the  Church  consist,  what  makes  an  ex- 
isting Church  to  be  identical  with  that  which  Christ  established? 
Certainly  its  Identity  does  not  consist  in  maintaining  un- 
changed its  various  rites  and  ceremonies.  These  are  but  its 
vestments,  and  to  alter  them  no  more  impairs  the  identity  of 
the  Church,  tlian  to  change  one's  clothes  affects  the  identity 


8 

• 

of  the  person  who  wears  those  clothes.  Indeed  it  is  obvious 
that  as  times  and  circumstances  change,  rites,  ceremonies^ 
usages,  7)iust  also  change.  That  mode  of  worship  which  was 
appropriate  when  Christians  met  in  upper  chambers  and  in 
catacombs,  must  have  been  discontinued  when  their  assemblies 
were  gathered  together  in  the  stately  Basilica  of  Saint  Sophia 
at  Constantinople,  or  under  the  lofty  dome  of  St.  Peter  in  the 
elder  Metropolis.  Indeed,  uniformity  in  such  things  never  be- 
longed to  the  Church.  At  Jerusalem,  after  Pentecost,  believers 
had  all  things  common,  but  it  is  clear  from  St.  Paul's  Epistles 
that  even  in  his  day,  there  were  distinctions  of  rich  and  poor 
in  the  Church,  and  consequently  separate  property.  Some- 
times he  practised  immersion,  as  with  Timothy,  at  other  times, 
resisted  it,  as  with  Titus.  His  maxim  as  to  rites  and  usages 
was,  let  there  be  liberty,  but  only  let  all  things  be  done  decently 
and  in  order.  And  so  has  it  been  universally  held,  and  no 
Church,  no  communion  of  Christians^  pretends  that  its  rites  and 
usages  are,  point  by  point,  exactly  the  same  with  those  of  the 
Apostolic  Age.  By  what  characteristics  then  is  the  identity 
of  the  Church  to  be  ascertained?  As  the  Church  is  a  Society, 
Divinely  instituted,  for  teaching  and  transmitting  religious 
Truth,  and  for  the  rightful  worship  of  the  most  High,  these 
things  would  seem  to  constitute  its  Identity:  its  preservation  of 
its  original  authority,  its  maintenance  of  the  same  essential  doc- 
trine, its  observance  of  the  same  essential  worship.  To  begin 
then  with  Doctrine.  All  of  the  teachings  of  Christianity  are 
true  and  profitable,  but  of  some  of  them,  it  is  essential  to  sal- 
vation tliat  thev  be  received,  of  others  it  is  not.  Faith  in  the 
proposition  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  Son  of  God,  was  sent  by 
the  Father  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  is  essential  to  salva- 
tion. He  that  believeth  not  this  will  be  damned.  But  faith  in 
the  proposition  that  Mary  Magdalene  is  the  same  with  Mary  of 
Bethany  is  not  essential  to  salvation. 

In"ow  one  office  of  the  Church  of  Christ  is  to  collect  and  em- 
body those  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  whicli  are  essential  to  sal- 
vation, that  she  may  effectually  teach  her  children  what  they 
nmst  believe  in  order  to  be  saved.  This  she  has  done  from  the 
earliest  age,  and  incorporated  those  essential  doctrines  in  her 
creeds.  Of  these,  the  Apostles'  is  the  more  brief,  the  Nicene 
the  more  full  expression  of  the  same  Faith.  The  Athanasian 
Creed  is,  as  Luther  expressed  it,  rather  a  Bulwai'k  of  the 


Apostles'  Creed,  than  itself  a  Creed.  If,  however,  any  prefer 
to  regard  it  in  the  latter  light,  it  is  a  more  minute  and  detailed 
statement  of  what  is  contained  in  the  Apostles',  as  the  Nicene 
also  is. 

]Srow  these  Creeds,  early  existing  in  the  Church,  propound- 
ing the  Faith  ever  held  by  the  Church,  and  used  regularly  in 
her  worship,  were  for  many  centuries  all  that  were  required  as 
the  essential  Faith  of  a  Christian  man.  At  the  Reformation 
the  Church  of  England  retained  these  old  Creeds,  adding  no- 
thing, diminishing  nothing.  Surely  then  she  has  not  changed 
the  essential  Faith.    In  her  Faith  she  is  not  a  new  Church. 

Our  own  Church  is  in  the  same  position,  for  she  holds  the 
same  doctrine  with  that  of  England.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Church  of  Home,  after  the  Reformation,  did  add  the  Creed  of 
Pope  Pius  the  Fourth,  containing  twelve  new  Articles,  to  the 
ISTicene  Creed,  and  declare  this  amalgam  to  be  the  true  Catho- 
lic Faith,  without  which  no  one  can  be  saved;  and  within  the 
last  five  years  she  has  added  still  another  under  the  same 
penalty.  "Which  then  of  these  bodies  can  be  most  justly 
charged  with  changing  the  Faith?  But  it  may  be  said  that 
these  various  doctrines,  thus  stamped  with  authority,  such  as 
Image- Worship,  Invocation  of  Saints,  Communion  in  one  kind, 
and  Transubstantiation,  and  the  like,  though  not  incorporated 
into  the  Creeds,  were  yet  generally  held  in  the  Church  before 
the  Reformation,  and  that  their  being  discarded  by  the  Church 
of  England  at  that  time,  did  of  itself  make  her  doctrine  new. 
To  this  there  are  two  sufficient  answers.  1st,  that  as  these 
opinions  were  not  incorporated  into  the  Creeds,  the  Church 
thereby  declared  her  judgment  that  they  were,  at  the  best, 
not  essential.  2dly  and  principally,  that  these  notions  were 
themselves  new,  and  that  when  discarded,  the  Church  only  re- 
asserted her  primitive  Faith.  As  Bishop  Bull  strongly  but 
justly  observes,  nothing  but  impudence  itself  dare  affirm,  that 
the  Holy  Scriptures  teach,  or  the  Primitive  Church  practised 
Image- Worship,  Invocation  of  Saints,  half  communion,  or 
Prayers  in  a  tongue  not  understood  by  the  People.  .  I  consider 
this  question  however  in  efiect  settled  by  the  position  the 
Church  of  Rome  has  lately  taken  on  the  subject  of  Develop- 
ment. Dr.  Newman,  in  his  essay  on  that  subject,  struck  a 
chord  which  has  vibrated  throughout  the  whole  Papal  Domin- 
ion,    He  teaches  that  there  are  Christian  doctrines  not  reveal- 


10 

ed  in  one  age,  wliick  are  revealed  in  another,  e.  g.  the  TVor- 
sliip  of  the  Virgin.     He  traces  this  to  the  Arian  controversy  in 
the  4th  century.     The  Arians  acknowledged  Christ  to  be  be- 
gotten before  all  worlds,  and  exalted  above  all  creatures,  but 
yet  insisted  that  He  was  Himself  still  but  a  creature.     The 
Church  held  that  no  honor  paid  to  Christ,  no  office,  dignity, 
authority,  ascribed  to  Him,  reached  that  which  was  due  to 
Him,  until  He  was  acknowledged  to  be  very  God.     What  was 
the  consequence?  This,  of  course,  we  all  know,  that  the  Arians 
were  declared  Heretics,     But  there  was  another  of  great  im- 
port, and  of  singular  nature,  that  Dr.  Newman  has  himself  the 
merit  of  having  discovered.     Then,  says  he,  "there  was  a  won- 
der in  Heaven,  a  Throne  was  seen  far  above  all  created  powers, 
mediatorial,  intercessory,  a  Title  archetypal,  a  Crown  bright  as 
the  morning  star,  a  Glory  issuing  from  the  Eternal  Tlirone, 
robes  pure  as  the  Heavens,  and  a  Sceptre  over  all.   And  who," 
he  asks,  "was  the  Predestined  Heir  of  that  Majesty?"  And  his 
answer  is,  that  "the  Church  decreed  it  to  be  the  Yirgin  Mary," 
You  may  ask  what  is  the  meaning  of  this  rhapsody?  The  mean- 
ing is,  that  because  certain  Heretics  imagined  a  Creature  with 
many  of  the  attributes  of  the  Creator,  and  the  Church  dis- 
claimed this  position  for  Her  Lord,  that  it  was  indispensable 
some  one  should  fill  it,  and  it  was  assigned  to  the  Yirgin  Mary. 
It  would  seem  to  follow  from  this,  that  whenever  a  heretic 
imagines  an  anomaly,  it  is  to  be  converted  into  a  reality  by  the 
plastic  power  of  the  Church.     But  without  stopping  to  analyze 
this  idea,  one  thing  is  certain,  that  it  acknowdedges,  and  is  an 
attempt  to  account  for,  the  fact  that  the  Divine,  or  quasi- 
Divine  honors  now  paid  to  the  Yirgin  Mary  in  the  Church  of 
Home,  were  not  known  among  Christians  till  the  4th  century, 
after  the  contest  with  Arianisra.     Then,  of  necessity,  it  follows 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  present  Church  of  Home  is  not  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Primitive  Church,  on  that  vital  subject.     But  it 
may  be  said  that  these  are  the  views  of  one  man.    The  reply 
is,  that  they  have  been  endorsed  by  the  Church  to  which  he 
now  beloE^gs.     Tliat  man  published  the  Book  containing  these 
views  when  he  gave  in  his  adhesion  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  as 
a  sufficient  expLanation  and  justification  of  his  course,  and  he 
submitted  liis  work  to   the  judgment  of  that  Church.     She 
knows  how  to  stigmatize  Books,  that  do  not  appeal  to  her  for 
judgment,  and  much  more,  of  course,  those  which  do,  wlien  she 


11 

condemns  tlieir  doctrine;  and  she  is  not  slow  or  sparing  in  the 
exercise  of  this  function.  But  no  word  of  official  disapprobation 
has  gone  Hfrth  against  this  work.  On  the  contrary,  the  Author, 
immediately  after  its  publication,  went  to  Rome,  as  it  were,  in 
triumphal  procession.  He  immediately  received  offices  of 
high  honor  and  trust,  and  is  now  at  the  head  of  that  University, 
which  the  Church  of  Rome  has  established  for  the  very  pur- 
pose of  moulding  the  minds  of  all  who  speak  the  English  tongue. 
That  the  Church  of  Rome  then  does  not  now  hold  Primitive 
Doctrine,  is  in  effect  confessed,  and  has  lately  been  most  fla- 
grantly exhibited  in  act,  a  dogma  having  been  enjoined  as  mat- 
ter of  Faith,  without  belief  in  which  there  is  no  salvation, 
which  was  not  only  unknown  to  Scripture  and  Antiquity,  but 
denounced  by  St.  Bernard  in  the  12th  century,  and  treated  as 
an  open  question  until  our  own  day.  On  the  other  hand,  that 
the  Ano-lican  Church  and  our  own  do  hold  the  Primitive  Doc- 
trine,  is  manifest  from  their  preserving  the  Creeds  intact,  and 
ever  appealing  to  Scri23ture  and  Antiquity. 

As  regards  Doctrine  then,  there  was  no  new  Church  estab- 
lished in  England  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  How  then 
has  it  been  with  regard  to  Government?  ISTow  it  is  clear  that 
nothing  is  essential  to  the  government  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
which  she  can  subsist  without,  for  the  essence  of  a  thing  is 
that  which  causes  it  to  be,  and  that  which  is  essential  is  conse- 
quently indispensable  to  its  very  existence. 

An  ecclesiastical  society  may  subsist  without  something 
which  is  essential  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  because  it  may  not 
be  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  the  Church  of  Christ  cannot  sub- 
sist, a  single  moment,  without  any  thing  which  is  essential  to 
it.  If  then  our  Church  possesses  a  government  which  is  the 
same  with  that  under  which  the  Church  of  Christ  once  sub- 
sisted, it  has  all  that  is  essential  in  Church  Government.  ISTow 
what  is  the  Government  of  our  Church?  It  is  an  Hierarchy  of 
Bishops,  Priests  and  Deacons,  claiming  to  derive  their  au- 
thority from  the  Apostles  by  unbroken  succession.  The  nature 
of  this  succession  is  that  each  Bishop  has  his  office  conferred  on 
Lim  by  others  holding  that  office.  One  Bishop  is  sufficient  to 
confer  the  office  on  another,  but  from  abundant  caution  the 
Council  of  Nice  required  that  three  BishojDS  should  unite  in  the 
consecration  of  another,  so  as  to  exclude,  as  far  as  might  be, 
any  possibility  of  the  chain  being  broken.     ISTow  no  one  doubts 


12 

that  this  method  of  consecration  has  been  preserved  in  our 
Church  since  the  American  Episcopate  was  established.  It  is 
equally  certain  that  the  English  Bishops  since  the  sSbond  year 
of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  have  been  consecrated  in  like  man- 
ner. Romanists  will  of  course  agree  with  us  in  affirming  what 
no  instructed  person  can  truthfully  deny,  that  this  succession 
had  been  preserved  from  the  time  of  the  Apostles  to  the  Refor- 
mation. Was  it  then  lost  at  the  Reformation?  They  who  say 
60,  must  rely  either  on  the  position  that  no  consecration  of  a 
Bishop  is  valid  without  the  assent  of  the  Pope,  which  is  a  mere 
assumption,  or  rather  much  worse,  for  it  is  an  assumption  op- 
posite to  Scripture,  contradicted  by  the  principles  and  practice 
of  the  Primitive  Church,  contradicted  by  the  view  which  Rome 
herself  takes  of  the  Greek  and  other  Oriental  Churches,  and 
contradicted  by  her  own  conduct  when  there  have  been  Popes 
and  Anti-Popes.  Either,  then,  it  is  on  this  unsupported  and 
even  disowned  Theory,  that  the  denial  of  the  transmission  of 
the  Episcopal  office  at  the  Reformation  must  rest,  or  it  must  be 
on  the  Nags-Head  Story — that  is,  that  Arch-Bishop  Parker 
chose  to  be  consecrated  at  a  Tavern,  rather  than  any  Church  or 
Chapel  in  England,  all  being  at  his  command,  and  that  he 
chose  to  have  a  Bible  laid  on  his  head  as  the  act  of  consecra- 
tion, instead  of  using  the  service  established  by  Edward  the 
6th,  or  any  other  that  was  decorous  and  authoritative.  This 
foolish  story,  originating  forty  years  after  the  occurrence,  has 
been  abundantly  disproved  by  Roman  Catholic  as  well  as 
Protestant  writers,  and  is  treated  with  contempt  even  by  Lin- 
gard,  the  Roman  Catholic  historian  of  England,  who  cannot  be 
accused  of  any  tenderness  to  her  Reformed  Church. 

The  Anglican  Church,  then,  and  our  own,  have  a  government 
of  Bishops,  Priests  and  Deacons,  enjoying  their  office  by  suc- 
cession from  the  Apostles.  Is  any  thing  more  necessary  to  the 
government  of  the  Church?  It  cannot  be,  because  for  many 
years  the  whole  Church  of  Christ  was  thus  governed.  The  power 
of  the  Pope  was  not  developed  for  several  centuries  after  the 
death  of  the  Apostles.  When  St.  Paul  resisted  St.  Peter  to  the 
face,  when  St.  Polycarp  resisted  Victor,  when  St.  Hyppolytos 
denounced  the  successive  Popes  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus  as 
heretics,  when  St.  Cyprian  resisted  Stephen,  when  St.  Hilary 
anathematized  Pope  Liberius,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the 
power  of  the  Popes  was  7iot  developed.    And  so  thinks  Dr. 


13 

Kewman,  and  so  must  they  think  who  make  him  the  Iiighest 
instructor  of  youth.  Since,  then,  the  primitive  Church  conti- 
nued to  subsist  under  the  government  of  Bishops,  without  a 
Pope,  it  is  certain  that  the  authority  of  the  Pope  is  not  indis- 
pensable to  the  Church.  And  since  the  Church  was  at  that 
time  most  pure  and  most  vigorous,  it  would  seem  to  follow  that 
the  authority  of  the  Pope  is  not  merely  not  essential,  but  even 
injurious.  And  furthermore,  the  Church  subsisted  in  England 
itself,  before,  as  well  as  since,  the  Reformation,  without  any 
subjection  to  the  Pope.  For  it  is  matter  of  history  that  the  Brit- 
ish Church,  before  the  mission  of  Augustine,  was  not  Papal, 
and  that  when  he  demanded  of  the  British  Bishops  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  Pope's  authority,  they  explicitly  refused  it.  Such 
is  the  testimony  of  venerable  Bede,  himself  warmly  attached  to 
the  Poman  See.  The  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  then,  as  it  was 
no  essential  part  of  Church  government  in  Christendom  gene- 
rally, so  especially  was  it  not  in  England,  but  was  every  where 
an  innovation,  and  there  an  innovation  which  provoked  protest 
and  resistance.  To  discard  this  innovation,  then,  was  certainly 
not  to  destroy  the  continuity  of  the  Church. 

And  now  as  to  Worship.  I  am  not  concerned  either  to  main- 
tain or  to  deny  that  a  Liturgy  is  essential  to  the  preservation  of 
the  identity  of  the  Church.  It  is  indeed  a  purely  speculative 
question;  for  in  point  of  fact,  every  Church  that  has  retained 
the  Apostolic  Succession,  has  'also,  by  a  sort  of  inviolable  in- 
stinct, retained  the  use  of  a  Liturgy.  And  our  own  Liturgy,  as 
well  as  the  English,  retains  the  leading  features  of  the  Primi- 
tive Formularies.  This  has  been  abundantly  shown  by  Palmer 
in  his  Origines  Liturgicas.  Changes  were  indeed  made  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation,  and  others  of  less  importance  have 
been  since  made;  but  tlie  Liturgy  of  the  Church  of  Rome  has 
also  repeatedly  been  altered,  and  even  now  the  Galilean  is  about 
being  superseded  in  France,  where  it  has  so  long  embodied  the 
devotions  of  the  people. 

This,  then,  is  the  state  of  the  question:  The  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  by  consequence  our  own,  is  accused  of  being  a  new, 
a  merely  human  society,  originating  in  the  16th  century.  What 
are  the  facts?  That  the  Church  at  that  era,  with  the  concur- 
rence of  the  entire  Laity,  (for,  during  twelve  years,  the  whole 
body  of  the  Laity  of  England  accepted  the  reformed  Church,) 
with  the  concurrence  of  all  of  nine  thousand  four  hundred  Cler- 


14 

gymen  except  oneliiindred  and  eightj-nine,  continuing  tolive  un- 
der a  government  essentially  the  same  with  that  of  tbeir  fore- 
fathers, holding  doctrines  essentially  the  same,  using  a  Liturgy 
essentially  the  same,  did  yet  reform  some  grievous  corruptions, 
put  an  end  to  some  dangerous  innovations,  and  return,  as  far  as 
might  be,  to  that  very  model  of  doctrine,  discipline,  and  wor- 
ship, which  had  been  enjoined  by  the  Apostles,  and  followed 
b}''  the  first  Christians.  If  this  destroys  the  Church,  then  the 
Church  is  designed  to  be  a  cage  of  unclean  birds;  then  any  op- 
position to  evil  in  the  Church,  any  reformation  of  corruptions, 
any  resolute  and  effectual  purpose  to  obey  God  rather  than  man, 
any  such  Christianlike  and  faithful  conduct,  tends  to  destroy 
the  Church,  and  establish  a  schismatical  institution  in  its  stead. 
But  we  have  not  so  learned  Christ  as  to  believe  this.  If  this 
were  so,  then  the  best  of  the  Poj)es  were  themselves  enemies  of 
the  Cliurch,  and  the  worst  were  its  true  friends.  Gregorv  the 
Seventh  and  Clement  the  Fourteenth  must  be  stigmatized  as 
innovators  and  schismatics,  for  they  too  sought  to  be  reformers, 
while  it  is  such  wretches  as  John  the  Twelfth  and  Alexander 
the  Sixth  who  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  true  friends  of  the 
Church,  for  tliey  abhorred  reform,  protected  all  old  abuses,  and 
introduced  new.  In  short,  if  reformation  be  schism,  then  good 
is  evil,  and  evil  good.  E-eformation  is  not  destruction:  reform- 
ation is  preservation.     And  therefore  it  is  that  we  rejoice  in  it. 

The  Old  Church  is  the  True  Church.  A  new  Church  is  as 
repugnant  to  my  convictions  as  to  those  of  any  person  whatso- 
ever. A  human  Church,  a  Church  which  derives  its  origin 
from  any  man,  however  wise  and  good, — for  such  a  Church  to 
be  the  Pillar  and  ground  of  God^s  Truth,  to  give  authority  to 
Ministers  who  are  God''s  Ambassadors,  to  assure  validity  to 
sacraments  whereby  faith  is  confirmed,  and  grace  increased, 
and  God''s  promises  sealed, — this  seems  to  be  a  contradiction  in 
thought.  Tiie  incongruity  needs  no  jiroof;  it  is  manifest  in  the 
very  statement. 

Such  a  Church  I  do  for  my  part  utterly  reject  and  disclaim. 
If  I  were  compelled  to  choose  between  a  new  Church  and  a 
new  Gospel,  I  should  feel  that  in  effect  no  choice  had  been  al- 
lowed me,  for  tliat  a  new  Church  is,  to  some  extent,  a  new 
Gospel,  for  the  Church  is  a  part  of  the  Gospel. 

Were  our  Church  a  new  Church,  there  would  not  be  such  a 
multitude  of  wise  and  good  men  coming  out  of  other  religious 


15 

bodies  to  seek  in  her  bosom  stability  of  Faith  and  assurance  of 
Hope.  "Were  she  proved  to  be  a  new  Church,  she  would  at  once 
lose  the  affection  and  the  reverence  of  many,  who  are  now  among 
her  most  devoted  children.  'No;  we  venerate  her  authority  be- 
cause it  has  been  transmitted  from  Christ  and  his  Apostles;  we 
love  her  doctrines  because  they  have  purified  the  lives  of  saints 
of  old,  and  nerved  the  hearts  of  martyrs;  because  "no  man  hav- 
ing drunk  old  wine,  straightway  desireth  new,  for  he  saith 
the  old  is  better." 

It  is  because  the  Church  to  which  we  belong  is  the  old 
Church,  preaching  the  old  Gospel,  because  she.  abhors  inno- 
vation, and  knows  nothing  of  Developments,  and  cries  to  all 
her  children  to  walk  in  the  old  paths,  wherein  is  the  good  way, 
— it  is  for  these  reasons  that  we  love  that  Church,  and  confide 
in  her  mission,  and  believe  that  the  gates  of  Hell  shall  not  pre- 
vail against  her,  but  that  she  will  arise  and  shine,  and  that 
Gentiles  will  come  to  her  Light,  and  Kings  to  the  brightness  of 
her  shining. 

Of  this  Church,  you,  beloved  brethren,  are  about  to  receive 
another  grant  of  Authority,  and  another  mark  of  confidence. 
No  longer  her  mere  Ministers,  she  is  about  to  make  you  her 
Priests,  thereby  enabling  you  to  perform  the  highest  and  most 
sacred  offices  of  religion,  and  thereby  clothing  your  words 
with  a  new  sanction. 

I^eed  I  exhort  you  to  be  faithful  to  this  high  trust?  To  be 
worthy  of  the  confidence  of  the  Church,  you  must  diligently 
teach  her  principles,  and  faithfully  illustrate  them  by  your  own 
example.  Tou  too  must  call  upon  men  to  walk  in  the  old  paths, 
and  thus  to  find  rest  for  their  souls. 

That  old  path  is  laid  down  in  Scripture,  for  there  is  no  re- 
ligious teaching  so  old,  or  so  true,  as  that  of  Scripture,  so  that 
the  Church,  reverencing  the  voice  of  Her  Lord,  says  whatsoever 
is  not  read  in  Scripture,  nor  may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to 
be  required  of  any  man  to  be  believed  as  an  Article  of  the 
Faith,  or  be  thought  requisite  or  necessary  to  salvation.  And 
in  the  mighty  work  of  interpreting  Scripture,  again  the  old  is 
the  best.  Cherish  candor  and  openness  of  mind,  and  welcome 
Truth  from  whatever  quarter  it  comes,  but  in  tracing  out  for 
yourselves  and  your  people  the  way  of  salvation,  expect  no  new 
lights,  but  follow  that  which  flows  to  us,  down  the  long  tract  of 
the  Ages  through  which  Christianity  has  already  passed  in  its 


16 

splendid  and  beneficent  progress,  that  light  which  has  hereto- 
fore  guided  the  steps  of  devout  men,  and  comforted  the  hearts 
of  the  weary  and  heavy-laden,  the  Light  of  Gospel  Trutli,  of 
which  the  Church  is  the  appointed  Pillar  and  Ground,  Holy 
Scripture  as  the  Rule  of  Faith,  Ancient  Authors  as  the  best 
Interpreters  of  that  Rule.  This  it  is,  to  which  you  are  remitted 
for  your  guidance,  by  the  Church  whose  higher  orders  you  this 
day  take  on  yourselves. 

But  those  old  paths  lead  not  only  to  sound  Doctrine,  but  to 
the  acceptable  service  of  God.  The  old  way  of  salvation,  as 
pointed  out  by  the  Apostles  and  as  travelled  by  the  early 
Christians,  was  not  a  wide,  smooth,  primrose  path,  but  straight 
and  narrow,  over  the  mountains  of  difSiculty,  and  across  the 
valley  of  humiliation.  A  man  who  sets  himself  to  follow  Christy 
must  prepare  for  trouble,  A  man  who  sets  himself  earnestly 
to  bring  others  to  the  obedience  of  Christ,  must  prepare  for  a 
double  measure  of  trouble.  Tlie  o-reat  Ens-lish  moralist  said 
with  his  accustomed  wisdom,  that  he  did  not  envy  that  man  to 
whom  tlie  Ministry  was  an  easy  life.  He  to  whom  it  has  been 
an  easy  life,  will  find  it  a  heavy  burden  in  Death,  and  a  woful 
stewardship  in  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

A  faithful  Minister  must,  until  the  Millennium  comes,  be 
sometimes  considered  singular,  narrow-minded,  impracticable; 
and  that  not  by  the  world  only,  but  by  even  his  flock.  He  must 
often  oppose  popular  ^opinion  and  common  practice.  Nevei* 
should  he  do  this  for  oppfosition's  sake,  but  on  the  contrary  seel^ ' 
to  please  men  for  their  ^od  to  edification;  but  if  he  b£  faithful 
to  his  Master,  he  must  be  sometimes  opposed  to  that  world  which 
crucified  his  Master,  and  would  again  were  He  again  on  earth. 
If,  then,  a  Minister  find  his  path  arduous  and  painful,  let  him 
not  on  this  account  alone  be  discouraged.  If  he  bring  trouble 
on  himself  by  sin  or  folly,  he  has  more  cause  than  any  otiier 
man  to  be  distressed;  but  if  sincerely  and  carefully  seeking  to 
do  his  duty,  he  yet  find  himself  thwarted,  opposed  and  traduced, 
perhaps  if  he  examine  the  thorny  patli  in  which  lie  is  traveling, 
he  will  find  it  the  old  path  of  obedience  to  God  rather  tlian  to 
man,  in  which  lie  will  recognize  the  footprints  of  Wilson  and  of 
Ken,  of  Hooker  and  of  Ridley,  of  Chrysostom  and  of  Ambrose, 
yea  of  the  Great  Captain  of  our  Salvation  Himself.  May  these 
old  paths  be  your  paths,  my  beloved  brethren,  both  as  to  life 
and  doctrine,  and  walking  therein  may  you  find  rest  for  your 
souls.    And  now,  &c. 


lif- 


THE 


SACEEDNESS  OF  HUMAN  LIFE, 


AXD 


BtoeHe^r)  Jr}Siffe^6S]ee  to  li§  S^^ti^iietloo : 


AN  ADDRESS 

BEFORE  THE  LITERARY  SOCIETIES  OF  WAKE  FOREST  COLLEGE, 

June  10th,  1857, 
(Being  the  day  before  tlie  Annual  Commencement.) 


BY 

PwEv.  WILLIAM    HOOPEE,  L.L.  B. 


RALEIGH: 

HOLDEN  &  "WILSON,  "STANDARD"  OFFICE. 

1857. 


ADDRESS. 


Young  Gentlemen  of  the 

EUZELIAN   AND   PhILOMATHESIAN   SOCIETIES:    ' 

Having  arrived  at  and  past  the  grand  climacteric  of  human 
life,  I  might  reasonably  hold  myself  excused  from  being  called 
upon  for  any  of  those  annual  addresses  which  it  is  now  the 
fashion  for  all  literary  institutions  to  provide  as  an  allurement 
and  as  a  reward  to  the  audiences  who  may  honor  their  com- 
mencements with  their  presence.  When,  therefore,  I  re- 
ceived your  strongly  urged  request  to  be  your  speaker  on 
this  occasion,  my  immediate  resolution  was  to  decline  the 
honor.  "ISTo,"  I  said,  "these  Collegiate  Rostra  are  arenas  for 
the  young  and  aspiring,  who  want  an  opportunity  of  recom- 
mending themselves  to  the  public,  by  an  intellectual  effort ; 
or,  at  least,  they  are  fields  for  those  who  are  still  in  the  vigor 
of  life — still  partners  and  leaders  in  the  busy  scenes  of  the 
world,  and  to  whom  excitement  and  a  crowd  are  yet  dearer 
than  repose  and  seclusion,  the  chosen  lot  of  the  aged."  But 
upon  second  thought,  that  age  which,  in  one  view,  seemed  a 
plea  for  exemption,  in  another  view  appeared  an  argument 
for  compliance.  "What  head  so  fit  to  give  counsel  as  one 
hoary  with  the  experience  of  more  than  three  score  years ! 
"What  heart  so  apt  to  feel  a  deep  interest  in  the  young  as  one 
that  has  been  warmed  with  the  domestic  sensibilities  of  two 
generations,  and  has  listened  to  the  tender  tones  of  children 
and  children's  children !  And  again :  What  younger  man 
can  there  be,  standing  on  such  a  vantage  ground  for  observa- 
tion— for  foretelling  the  future  from  the  past — for  descrying 
at  a  distance  the  shadows  that  foreshow  coming  events — and 
for  giving  affectionate  monitions  how  to  avert  the  evil,  and 
secure  the  good ! 

It  was  such  considerations  as  these  that  overruled  my  first 


inclination  to  be  excused,  and  made  me  willing  to  avail  my- 
self of  this,  perhaps  my  last  public  opportunity  of  bearing 
my  testimony,  before  my  country,  on  some  important  subject, 
touching  the  public  happiness,  and  appropriate  to  the  ears  of 
our  educated  youth.  These  annual  addresses  meet  a  public 
want.  There  is  wanting,  in  our  country,  some  periodical  of 
such  pre-eminent  reputation  as  to  be  the  chosen  depository  of 
the  thoughts  of  our  wisest  and  best  men,  and  the  channel  of 
communication  between  them.  If  a  man  of  vigorous  and 
liberal  thought  wishes  to  reach  the  thought  of  kindred  spirits 
through  the  periodical  press,  he  can  find  no  journal  of  general 
circulation.  All  are  circumscribed  to  narrow  limits,  either 
by  the  want  of  commanding  talent  or  by  being  the  organs  of 
parties,  political  or  religious.  But  the  enlightened  and  far- 
gathered  audiences  of  our  collegiate  commencements  furnish 
perhaps  the  best  substitute  for  such  a  wide-spread  periodical ; 
and  present  favorable  opportunities  for  laying  before  the 
public  our  views  on  some  subject  of  present  and  living  inter- 
est. This  then  may  be  taken  as  my  last  public  secular  ad- 
dress— would  that  it  might  be  my  cycnea  vox — like  the  swan's 
dying  song — its  best,  as  it  is  its  last. 

And  the  theme  that  I  have  chosen  is  one  which  has  long 
brooded  with  painful  weight  upon  my  mind,  as  involving  the 
moral  standing  of  our  beloved  country,  and  threatening  to 
bring  down  heaven's  withering  curse  upon  the  Buena  Yista 
of  this  Elysian  land.  My  theme  is :  The  Sackedness  of  Hu- 
man Life,  and  Amekican  Indiffeeence  to  its  Destkuction. 

When  I  consider  the  preciousness  of  that  ethereal  spark 
which  burns  within  the  frail  casement  of  the  human  frame — 
when  I  reflect  upon  its  endless  destinies — its  keen  conscious- 
ness of  its  own  infinite  susceptibilities  of  happiness  or  misery — 
its  horror  of  being  suddenl}^  struck  from  its  throne  within, 
and  sent  out,  a  terrified  stranger,  into  an  unknown  world, 

"  Trembling,  hoping,  lingering,  flying  ;" 

when  I  consider  under  what  careful  and  jealous  custody  its 
Maker  has  placed  this  inestimable,  yet  most  perishable  trea- 
sure, denouncing  upon  the  man  that  touches  it  a  bloody  death 


in  this  world  and  exclusion  from  heaven  in  the  next,*  I  am 
ready  to  wonder  at  its  perilous  exposure.  I  am  amazed  that 
it  is  not  defended  with  bars  of  steel  and  walls  of  adamant, 
but  that  its  slight  fortress  can  be  pierced  and  the  tenant  de- 
stroyed "with  a  bare  bodkin."  I  see  the  Deity's  tender  care 
of  his  creatures  from  the  least  to  the  greatest.  I  see  him 
taking  care  for  the  unfledged  birdling,  that  it  shall  always  be 
born  in  the  Spring,  and  never  feel  any  thing  more  rude  than 
the  vernal  airs  that  wave  the  branch  of  the  tree  where  it  is 
nestling.  I  see  him  "  tempering  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb." 
I  see  that  exquisite  tenderness  still  more  beautifully  exhibited 
in  the  implantation  of  maternal  love  in  all  animated  nature, 
from  the  timid  hen  that  will  fight  the  powerful  bird  of  prey, 
as  soon  as  it  becomes  a  mother,  to  the  woman  that  will  waste 
away  her  life  over  her  sick  infant's  cradle.  I  hear  the  voice 
of  God's  tenderness  in  that  mother's  wail,  when  that  babe 
breathes  its  last :  "  Kachel  weeping  for  her  children  and 
would  not  be  comforted  because  they  were  not."  I  recognize 
God's  jealous  protection  of  man's  life  in  that  severe  inquisi- 
tion for  blood  in  the  Mosaic  law, which  commands  every  city 
in  whose  vicinity  a  man  was  found  slain  by  an  unknown 
hand,  to  expurgate  itself  by  solemn  sacrifice  ;  and  by  procla- 
mation of  herald  to  disclaim  any  agency  in  the  homicide : 
"  And  all  the  elders  of  that  city,  that  are  next  unto  the  slain 
man,  shall  wash  their  hands  over  the  sacrifice  that  shall  be 
beheaded — and  they  shall  answer  and  say :  our  hands  have 
not  shed  this  blood,  neither  have  our  eyes  seen  it.  Be  mer- 
ciful, O  Lord,  unto  thy  people,  and  lay  not  this  innocent  blood 
to  their  charge.  So  shalt  thou  put  away  the  guilt  of  inno- 
cent blood  from  among  you."f 

Compare  with  this  jealous,  severe  guardianship  of  human 
life,  the  recklessness  with  which  blood  is  shed  and  left  una- 

*  I  conjure  every  young  man  who  carries  a  Revolver,  and  who  may  cast  his  eye  on 
these  pages,  to  revolve  these  solemn  declarations  of  God's  word :  "  Whosoever  hateth 
his  brother  is  a  murderer,  and  ye  know  that  no  murderer  hath  eternal  life  abiding  in 
him."  1  John,  3  15.  "  Now  the  works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest,  which  are  these : — 
hatred,  variance,  wrath,  strife,  envyings,  murders,  and  such  like — of  which  I  tell 
you  that  those  who  do  such  things  shall^not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  Gala- 
TIANS  5, 19  21.  < 

+  Dedt.  21,  6  9. 


venged  on  the  face  of  our  land  ;  and  well  may  a  patriot  fear, 
lest,  ere  long,  the  cup  of  trembling  shall  be  put  to  our  lips, 
and  we  shall  be  made  to  drink  blood,  because  we  have  loved 
blood. 

"  Oh  Britain !"  exclaims  Dr.  Young,  "  oh  Britain,  infamous 
for  suicide !" 

"Oh  America!"  I  respond,  "infamous  for  inventions  of 
murderous  weapons,  infamous  for  bloody  rencounters,  for 
blood-defending  lawyers — for  blood-acquitting  juries,  but 
above  all,  for  blood-stained  steamboats  and  railroads."  The 
prosecution  of  our  subject  will  lead  us  to  speak  of  these  sev- 
eral methods  of  destroying  man's  life,  in  which  our  country 
has  risen  to  a  "  bad  eminence  "  among  the  nations. 

I. — ^THE   BLOODSHED   OF   THE   PUBLIC  HIGHWAYS. 

Europe,  hardened  as  she  is  by  perpetual  wars,  and  crim- 
soned with  battle-fields,  looks  with  wonder  and  horror  upon 
our  lavish  slaughter  of  our  citizens  in  time  of  peace.  Such 
is  the  atrocious  waste  of  human  life  among  us,  that  it  would 
really  seem  as  if  our  legislatures,  our  courts  of  justice,  our 
steamboats,  our  railroads,  and  our  citizens  generally,  had  em- 
braced the  Malthusian  system  of  population  :  "  That  the  in- 
crease ot  the  species  is  greatly  too  rapid  for  the  production  of 
food — and  hence  wars,  pestilences,  and  other  modes  of  thin- 
ning out  the  redundant  population,  are  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  good  of  the  world  ;  and  thus,  what  we  commonly  call 
calamities,  are  no  more  calamities  than  a  farmer's  thinning 
out  his  coi'n,  or  a  vine-dresser's  cutting  away  the  hurtful  lux- 
uriance of  his  vineyard."  And  if  Malthus's  theory  be  a  sound 
one,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  steamboats  and  rail- 
roads have  done  good  service  to  their  country  in  this  respect; 
and  as  long  as  they  go  on  at  their  present  commendable 
speed,  we  need  not  go  to  war  to  rid  ourselves  of  loafers  and 
to  save  our  loaves.  I  seriously  recommend  to  the  legislature 
to  amend  the  law  relating  to  the  qualilications  of  jurors,  in 
capital  trials,  and  to  make  the  presidents  and  other  function- 
aries of  railroad  companies  ineligible  to  sit  on  juries,  as  well 
as  butchera,  because  of  their  familiarity  with  blood.     And  as 


the  butclier's  trade  is  a  very  useful  one,  I  recommend  that 
no  railroad  company  shall  be  liable  to  prosecution  for  injuries 
to  life  ;  I  will  not  say  to  "  life  or  limb,"  because  they  should 
be  punished  unless  they  do  their  work  effectually,  and  put 
the  wounded  out  of  their  misery.  It  would  be  no  favor  to 
the  community  to  turn  out  from  the  shattered  cars  a  mass  of 
helpless  cripples  for  the  public  to  feed  and  nurse.  I  recom- 
mend, further,  to  the  grand  jury,  that  the  Ealeigh  and  Gas- 
ton Railroad  Company  be  presented  for  not  having  rid  their 
country  of  more  than  five  or  six  lives  during  the  whole  time 
of  their  existence ;  and  thereby  having  been  guilty  of  raising 
the  price  of  provisions  to  the  present  alarming  rate.  Be  it 
understood,  however,  that  said  company  shall  not  be  subject 
to  prosecution  for  failing  in  their  butcher's  work,  during  those 
years  when  the  cars  had  the  rheumatism,  it  being  unreasona- 
ble to  expect  of  them  much  effective  service  in  their  then 
disabled  condition. 

But  if  it  be  a  matter  of  national  policy,  in  these  times  of 
short  crops,  to  increase  the  quantity  of  food  and  diminish  the 
number  of  consumers,  there  is  a  plan  which  we  may  adopt, 
as  a  last  resort,  in  case  the  railroads  should  fall  off  in  the  due 
amount  of  killed.  It  is  a  plan  once  recommended  by  the 
celebrated  Dean  Swift,  on  occasion  of  a  great  scarcity  in 
Ireland.  He  proposed  that  all  the  fat,  well-looking  children 
should  be  prepared  for  the  table.  Tliis,  he  said,  would  have 
the  double  advantage  of  increasing  the  supply  of  food,  and 
diminishing  the  demand.  JSTow,  should  the  crops  of  the  pre- 
sent year  fall  short,  as  they  did  during  the  last,  and  great 
scarcity  ensue,  the  Governor  of  the  State  has  only  to  make 
secret  arrangements  with  Barnum  to  get  up  a  "  baby  show  " 
in  Raleigh,  advertising  premiums  for  the  fattest  and  rosiest 
children,  (none  so  old  as  to  be  tough.)  At  the  same  time  Hisf 
Excellency  should  send  out  private  instructions  to  all  the 
starving  paupers  of  the  land,  to  be  ready  at  the  metropolis, 
on  the  appointed  day ;  and  when  the  market-house  is  full  of 
babies,  to  give  the  signal  for  a  general  onslaught,  when  the 
famished  wretches  should  "  hie  on  "  and  carry  off  as  many 
prizes  as  they  could  manage.     But  this  is  a  matter  we  should 


8' 

be  a  little  secret  about,  lest  the  mothers  sliould  get  bold 'of  it. 
But  I  rather  think  the  railroads  will  save  us  from  the  necessity 
of  so  extreme  a  measure  as  this.  I  recollect,  a  year  or  two 
since,  some  hundreds  of  children  got  on  board  the  cars  at 
Philadelphia,  to  spend  a  holiday,  and  have  a  merry-making 
in  the  country.  When  they  got  the  poor  little  things  safely 
in  the  trap,  down  came  another  car  upon  them,  like  a  great 
dead-fall,  and  crushed  the  little  sparrows  all  in  a  mass !  Some 
hopped  and  fluttered  a  while,  but  soon  died.  Now,  what 
better  provider  of  fresh  meat  can  we  have  than  a  railroad 
which  does  its  business  in  this  style !  In  this  fast  age  people 
must  travel  thirty  or  forty  miles  per  hour,  and  while  this  is 
the  case,  there  is  little  danger  of  a  failure  of  supply  from 
these  winged  shambles. 

This  is  line  work  to  go  on  in  a  christian  land,  and  in  the 
most  civilized  country  in  the  world !  And  what  was  done  to 
the  Herods  who  were  guilty  of  this  massacre  of  the  innocents  ? 
Why,  nothing;  and  the  souls  of  these  slaughtered  innocents 
are  crying  to  God  from  under  the  altar,  saying :  "  How  long, 

0  Lord,  holy  and  true,  dost  thou  not  judge  and  avenge  our 
blood  on  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth." 

Does  any  one  take  the  part  of  the  railroad  companies  and 
say :  These  accidents  are  inevitable — that  they  necessarily  re- 
suit  from  the  use  of  so  great  power — that  you  can't  use  great 
power  to  achieve  great  public  benefits  without  great  risks ! 

1  answer :  That  great  risks  are  not  necessary,  as  is  proved  by 
railroad  statistics  in  Europe,  where  deaths  from  this  cause  are 
in  a  proportion  vastly  below  our  average.  The  only  necessity 
for  the  excessive  risk  among  us  is,  the  unprincipled  and 
uncontrollable  love  of  gam,  overleaping  all  concern  for  mur- 
derous consequences:  and  this  is  not  a  refutation,  but  a  cmi- 
fession  of  the  charge  which  I  am  now  making  upon  the 

American  people  of  a  recMess  indifference  to  the  destruction 
of  hmnan  life. 

After  reading  the  details  of  one  of  these  murderous  railroad 
oolhsions,  in  which  a  hundred  human  beings,  some  of  them 
the  life  and  flower  of  the  land,  are  hurried,  without  a  mo- 
ment's warning,  into  eternity,  and  many  more  left  so  shock- 


ingly  wounded  that  the  poor  remains  of  life  are  not  worth 
having,  I  am  ready  to  wonder  that  the  pubhc  indignation 
does  not  rise  to  such  a  pitch  as  to  execute  immediate  "  Ijmch 
law  "  upon  all  the  engineers  and  superintendents.  We  might 
almost  imagine  that  some  frantic  father,  hearing  that  wife 
and  children  were  all  destroyed  by  the  carelessness  or  mur- 
derous rashness  of  some  conductor  or  engineer,  should  take 
up  the  words  of  Macduff  in  the  play,  when  the  heavy  tidings 
reached  his  ears : 

"Your  castle  is  surprised,  your  wife  and  babes 
Savagely  slaughtered ;  to  relate  the  manner. 
Would — add  the  death  of  ycnt." 

Macduff.    "  My  wife  killed  too  ? 
My  children  too?    All  my  pretty  ones? 
Did  you  say  all?    0  hell-kite!     All? 
What,  all  my  pretty  chickens  and  their  dam^ 
At  one  fell  swoop  ? 
Oh  I  could  play  the  woman  with  mine  eyes  t 

but  gentle  heaven 

Cut  short  all  intermission— front  to  front, 
Bring  this  man  and  myself— 
Within  my  sword's  length  set  him ;  if  he  'scape,^ 
Then  heaven  forgive  him  too." 

If  the  public  feeling  and  the  public  conscience  were  pro- 
perly awake  on  this  subject^  railroads  would  be  subjected  by 
law  to  such  enormous  forfeitures  that  they  would  take  good 
heed  against  such  horrible  perpetration  of  wholesale  murder. 
But  "  Young  America  "  cares  little  for  "  dash,  smash,  crash," 
provided  he  can  "  go  ahead." 

It  is  a  common  saying  that  "  corporations  have  no  souls ;" 
but  it  is  a  mistake,  and  the  reason  of  the  mistake  has  been 
that  people  looked  for  the  soul  in  the  wrong  place,  supposing 
they  must  find  it  in  the  head  or  the  breast ;  whereas,  the 
seat  of  a  corporation's  soul  is  the  pocket,  and  I  am  glad  to 
find  that  the  friends  of  slaughtered  travellers  have  at  last 
found  out  the  locality  by  frequent  stabs  into  these  souls ;  are 
making  them  bleed  as  freely  as  they  have  made  to  bleed  the 
hearts  and  veins  of  our  once  happy  families.  As  a  further 
safeguard,  I  recommend  that  the  law  oblige  every  engineer 
and  captain  of  the  road  to  be  chained  by  one  foot  to  the  floor 


10 

of  the  locomotive.  Then,  in  case  of  a  collision,  the  authors 
of  the  massacre  would  be  the  foremost  victims.  In  these 
remarks  I  have  paid  my  respects  chiefly  to  the  railroads  ;  for 
vi^hich  I  hope  the  steamboats  will  forgive  me,  inasmuch  as 
they  have  been  so  far  surpassed,  of  late,  by  the  railroads,  in 
thinning  our  surplus  population,  that  we  have  almost  forgotten 
their  former  meritorious  services  in  that  line. 

II. — THE  BLOOD  OF  SUDDEN  EENCOITNTEKS. 

The  immense  fortunes  which  the  patentees  of  improved 
fire-arms  are  acquiring,  indicate  the  horrid  greediness  of  men 
to  be  provided  with  implements  of  social  murder,  and  prove 
the  direful,  retrogradation  of  the  American  republic  towards 
barbarism.  Time  was  when  desperadoes  could  carry  but  one, 
or,  at  most,  two  deaths  in  their  pockets.  Kow  they  can  carry 
twelve !  Hitherto  Guttenburg,  and  Franklin,  and  Jenner, 
and  Watt,  and  Arkwright,  and  Davy,  and  Fulton,  and  Morse, 
have  occupied  the  temple  of  inventive  genius  and  discovery, 
and  received  the  homage  of  mankind  for  their  beneficent 
inventions  and  discoveries ;  but  now  Colt,  and  Sharpe,  and 
Bowie,  and  Paixhan,  and  Minie,  have  hurled  those  worthies 
from  their  pedestals  and  set  themselves  up  as  Molochs  to  be 
worshipped !  Gibbon,  the  great  historian,  has  remarked  that 
the  earth  will  always  be  overrun  with  the  pernicious  race  of 
conquerors  as  long  as  men  pay  more  honor  to  the  destroyers 
than  to  the  benefactors  of  the  species.  So  we  may  say,  that 
the  wit  of  man  will  always  be  more  prolific  of  evil  inventions 
than  of  good,  while  the  engines  of  destruction  are  more  in 
demand  than  the  implements  of  useful  industry. 

The  wearing  of  arms  in  time  of  peace  is  an  indication  that 
a  nation  is  in  a  semi-barbarous  state;  and  one  of  the  first 
steps  towards  civilization  is  the  banishing  of  deadly  weapons 
from  the  persons  of  tlie  citizens.  Sudden  passion  ought 
never  to  have  at  hand  the  means  of  instant  vengeance ;  and 
as  no  man  can  feel  himself  safe  in  the  social  circle,  if  he  sus- 
pects his  neighbor  to  be  armed,  the  practice  in  some  will 
lead  to  the  practice  in  all^  and  society  will,  every  now  and 


11 

then,  be  shocked  by  some  bloody  affray  occurring  in  our 
streets,  or  even  on  the  domestic  hearth.  I  hope,  young  gen- 
tlemen, you  will  lay  it  down  as  one  of  the  principles  of  your 
future  life,  never  to  follow  the  example  of  these  rowdies  of 
our  frontiers.  Act  on  the  principle  that  the  man  who  is  con- 
scious of  virtue  and  uprightness,  wants  no  shield,  no  weapon 
but  his  integrity : 

"  Integer  vitse,  scelerisque  purus, 
Non  eget  Mauris  jaculis  neque  arcu." 

Expose  not  yourselves  to  the  awful  calamity  and  the  immedi- 
cable grief  of  shedding  a  fellow-creature's  blood,  in  sudden 
anger  or  alarm.  Better  fall  a  victim  to  another's  violence, 
than  yourself  bring  death  upon  a  brother-man.  He  who  car- 
ries arms,  has  deliberately  resolved  to  kill  his  fellow-man 
whenever  sudden  passion  or  fear  may  impel  him ;  and  must 
he  not,  then,  be  written  down  in  God's  book,  as  a  murderer 
in  purpose  and  intention,  whether  he  ever  carries  his  purpose 
into  execution  or  not  ?  And  indeed  it  will  be  well  for  him,  if 
his  violent  dealings  do  not  come  down  upon  his  own  head, 
even  in  the  present  world.  The  man  who  is  known  to  carry 
arms  is  in  greater  danger  than  others  of  being  assassinated. 
"  They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword."  Like 
begets  like.  Dreading  his  desperate  character,  others  will 
be  apt  to  be  beforehand  with  him,  and  shoot  him  before  he  is 
aware,  from  apprehension  of  being  shot  themselves. 

But  alas  !  what  avails  my  feeble  voice  to  dissuade  the  youth 
of  our  country  from  violent  personal  rencounters,  when  the 
representatives  of  the  nation,  in  the  very  halls  destined  for 
calm  and  high  debate  on  the  momentous  interests  of  this 
great  country,  set  examples  of  ruffian  assault,  and  when  half 
the  nation  applaud  the^  deed !  In  pursuing  my  present  line 
of  thought,  I  can  hardly  omit,  without  being  faithless  to  my 
cause,  that  instance  of  personal  violence  which  has  shaken 
the  feelings  of  this  nation  from  the  centre  to  the  circumfer- 
ence. I  know  1  am  treading  on  dangerous  ground,  because 
I  venture  upon  a  collision  with  sectional  and  party  spirit. 


12 

But  that  noble  sentiment  of  Churchill,  which  long  ago  won 
mv  admiration,  I  trust  will  ever  animate  me  : 

"  Rather  stand  up,  assured  with  conscious  pride, 
Alone,  than  err  with  millions  on  your  side." 

The  assault  upon  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  while  sitting 
at  his  desk  in  the  Senate  House,  defenceless  and  unsuspect- 
ing, and  the  pouring  down  upon  his  naked  head  a  shower  of 
violent  blows  with  a  cane,  until  he  was  felled  down,  in  a 
senseless  condition,  was  an  act  so  outrageous,  that  it  ought  to 
find  no  apologist — no  extenuator.     It  has  increased,  to  an  in- 
calculable degree,  the  strength  and  fury  of  abolitionism.     It 
has  injured  the   character  of  the  southern  States,  first,  as 
being  perpetrated  by  one  of  their  representatives,  and  then 
as  tempting  all  the  south  to  vindicate  and  even  to  applaud 
an  act,  which  has  tarnished  the  glory  of  republican  govern- 
ment to  the  utmost  boundaries  of  civilization.     And  what  is 
the  plea  of  defense  set  np  by  the  assailant  and  his  backers? 
It  is :  "  That  the  party  attacked  used,  in  debate,  violent  and 
contemptuous  language  respecting  the  State  of  which  the  as- 
sailant was  the  representative."     I  do  not  pretend  to  vindicate 
the  language  which  provoked  the  assault.     Even  moderate 
northern  men  saw  and  acknowledged  it  to  be  shameful  and 
unjustifiable.     But  I  hold  that  such  a  method  of  restraining 
or  chastising  the  license  of  the  tongue,  is  utterly  at  war  with 
the  conditions  and  rights  of  social  life,  and  the  principles  of, 
representative  government.     The  maxim :  "  J)e  nwr'tuie  nil 
nisi  honuni^"^  would  have  restrained  me  from  this  animad- 
version on  the  conduct  of  one  who  has  since  been  called  to 
a  more  solemn  bar  than  that  of  this  world,  had  not  con- 
cern for  the  living  demanded  it  of  me  ;  and  did  I  not  think 
it  my  duty,  as  a  minister  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  to  bear  my 
unflinching  testimony  against  an  act  of  a  pvhlic  man,  which, 
through  the  influence  of  accidental,  political  considerations, 
is  defended  and  applauded  by  half  the  Union,  M^ith  a  few  in- 
dividual exceptions.     I  fear  we  have  not  seen  the  end  of  this 
transaction.     As  once,  of  old,  crystal  streams  flowed  at  the 
stroke   of   the  staff"  of   Moses,  and  followed  the  Israelites 


13 

throngli  all  their  journey ;  so  crimson  streams  may  burst  forth 
at  the  stroke  of  this  unhallowed  staff,  which  shall  follow  our 
American  tribes  during  all  the  train  of  their  political  history. 
I,  for  one,  protest  against  the  South's  assuming  the  responsi- 
bility for  this  act.  Ko  independent,  no  unfettered,  fearless 
discussion  of  national  interests  could  be  carried  on,  if  club 
law,  the  argumentum  lacuUnum^  were  the  order  of  the  day. 
In  a  deliberative  assembly,  the  attacks  of  the  tongue  should 
be  met  by  the  same  weapon.  The  philippics  of  Cicero  were 
avenged  by  cutting  off  his  head,  and  by  boring  with  a  bod- 
kin the  tongue  that  pronounced  them.  And,  although  the 
smitten  Senator  of  Massachusetts  is  no  Cicero,  but  only  one 
who  "  has  the  venom  of  his  shaft  without  the  vigor  of  his 
bow,"  yet,  I  hope  we  shall  not  sanction  Mark  Anthony  and 
his  wife's  method  of  punishing  a  sharp  tongue,  with  still 
sharper  steel.  To  do  this,  is  to  confess  an  inability  to  repel 
insolent  charges  with  intellectual  weapons ;  and  I  hope  the 
south  is  not  ready  to  admit  such  inability. 

III. THE   BLOOD   OF   THE   DUEL. 

But  these  sudden,  fortuitous,  bloody  rencounters,  in  which 
human  life  is  unscrupulously  smitten  down,  as  if  it  were  no 
more  than  the  life  of  an  ox,  are  not  the  only  forms  of  private 
slaughter  which  we  have  to  dread,  and  against  which,  young 
-gentlemen,  I  am  bound  to  seize  this  public  opportunity  of 
warning  you.  These  savage  fights,  the  results  of  sudden 
passion,  armed  with  deadly  weapons,  are  a  feature  oi  frontier 
life,  where  rude  adventurers  throng,  and  where  the  law  is 
not  yet  strong  enough,  nor  society  sufficiently  sober  and  mild 
to  make  the  wearing  of  arms  criminal  and  disreputable.  But 
there  still  remains,  in  undiminished  credit,  the  old-fashioned, 
time-honored  duel,  associated  with  great  and  gallant  names, 
such  as  those  of  Hamilton  and  Decatur,  in  this  country,  not 
to  mention  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  all  Europe,  who  bow 
to  the  "  code  of  honor  "  as  their  binding  law. 

I  am  not  going  to  enter  upon  the  hackneyed  arguments 
against  this  practice.     I  am  not  going  to  move  your  pity  and 


14 

inflame  your  indignation  by  painting  a  wife,  a  mother,  a 
sister,  wild  with  grief  over  the  freshly  slain  corpse  of  a  hus- 
band, a  son,  or  a  brother.  I  know  the  duellist  can  parry  all 
your  arguments,  and  drown  all  your  lamentations,  by  this 
short  defence :  "  I  'tnust  live  in  society.  I  can't  live  in  society 
unless  I  defend  my  honor.  If  I  am  insulted,  however  reluc- 
tant I  may  be  to  take  or  lose  life,  I  Tnust  fight,  or  I  lose 
caste.  That  I  cannot  bear.  Better  die  honored  than  live 
dishonored.  My  reputation  is  dearer  to  me  than  my  life.  I 
have  a  right,  you  will  admit,  to  defend  my  life^  much  more 
have  I  a  right  to  defend  my  TionorP  ISTow,  what  have  you 
to  reply  to  such  a  plea  as  this?  Nothing  that  will  have 
weight  with  the  duelling  world.  You  may  bring  powerful 
considerations,  founded  on  the  awful  danger  of  being  sent,  in 
a  moment,  into  the  presence  of  God  with  the  crime  of  inten- 
ded, perhaps  actual,  murder  on  the  soul.  You  may  expose 
most  graphically  the  absurdity,  the  cruelty,  the  political  and 
social  mischiefs  of  such  a  practice ;  but  these  do  not  prevail 
with  the  minds  of  the  young  and  ardent,  whose  ruling  passion 
is  pride  of  character,  and  a  keen  sensibility  to  their  position 
in  society.  This  is  a  feeling  not  to  be  despised.  If  it  is  an 
infirmity,  it  is  one  which  Milton  has  almost  justified  and 
canonized  by  calling  it :  "  The  last  infirmity  of  noble  minds." 
It  is  not  right  that  high-minded  young  men  should  be  put  to 
the  excruiating  alternative  of  forfeiting  their  place  in  society, 
or  running  the  dreadful  risk  of  killing  or  being  killed  in  a 
duel.  They  ought  not  to  be  reduced  to  this  cruel  choice. 
Kather,  this  high  regard  to  reputation — this  sensitive  concern 
for  a  position  in  society,  ought  to  throw  its  weight  and  force 
against  the  duel,  and  not  in  its  favor.  As  soon  as  you  bring 
society  into  such  a  state  of  sentiment  and  principle,  that  the 
duel  will  be  the  I'uin  rather  than  the  pi'eservation  of  character, 
then,  and  not  till  then,  will  you  put  an  end  to  the  practice. 
And  never  will  society  stamp  this  stigma  upon  duelling,  until 
it  shall  imbibe,  in  full  measure,  that  estimate  of  the  awful 
sanctity  of  human  life,  which  it  is  my  object,  this  da}',  to 
impress  upon  your  minds.  Yes,  I  repeat  it,  the  awful 
sanctity  of  human  life^  and  the  dire  atrocity  of  striking  at 


15 

that  sacred  thing,  without  a  sad  necessity  of  doing  so.  Long 
ago  I  learned  from  Mr.  Locke  that  "uneasiness  determines 
the  will."  Whenever,  in  any  question  of  conduct,  a  man 
feels  greater  uneasiness  in  letting  an  action  alone  than  in 
committing  it,  he  will  infallibly  commit  it.  Whenever  he 
feels  greater  uneasiness  at  the  thought  of  committing  it  than 
of  abstaining  from  it,  he  will  abstain  from  it.  If,  then,  you 
want  to  govern  men,  you  must  enlist  their  strongest  feelings 
on  your  side,  and  make  the  violation  of  your  will  more  pain- 
ful to  them,  (fchat  is,  occasion  them  more  uneasiness,)  than 
obedience  to  your  will.  With  duellists,  nothing  makes  them 
so  uneasy,  nothing  is  so  intolerable  to  them,  as  scorn — as 
losing  their  place  among  the  first  classes  of  society.  It  fol- 
lows, that  if  duelling  can  be  made,  not  a  passport  to  favor, 
but  a  sure  prelude  to  disgrace,  and  a  ground  of  exclusion 
from  the  society  of  the  great,  the  elegant,  the  rich,  the  fash- 
ionable, the  beautiful  and  the  refined,  you  take  away  the 
chief  motive  to  it,  and  cut  it  up  by  the  roots. 

I  stand  here,  then,  as  the  apologist  of  the  duellist,  against 
the  upbraidings  of  society.  I  thus  speak  in  his  behalf:  "  You 
declaim,"  he  may  say  to  society,  "  in  the  most  eloquent  and 
the  most  piteous  terms  against  the  folly,  the  stupidity,  the 
inhumanity  of  duelling.  All  this  folly,  stupidity  and  inhu- 
manity I  am  guilty  of  in  order  to  please  you.  I  love  my 
own  life,  of  course ;  I  abhor  to  shed  the  blood  of  my  fellow- 
man.  But  if  he  insults  me  the  opinions  of  society  require 
me  to  call  him  to  the  field.  I  yield  reluctantly  to  their  im- 
perious demand.  I  consent  to  risk  my  own  life  and  the  im- 
bruing of  my  hands  in  the  blood  of  my  fellow  man  rather 
than  forfeit  your  favor.  I  live  upon  your  smiles.  Death  and 
homicide  are,  either  of  them,  easier  to  bear  than  your  intol- 
erable frowns,  and  still  more  intolerable  sneers.  Your  esteem 
drives  me  to  the  field,  charges  the  deadly  tube,  sends  the 
mortal  bullet!  How  then  can  3^ou  consistently  blame  and 
upbraid  the  man  who  values  your  high  opinion  so  much  as  to 
risk  the  life  of  himself,  and  that  even  of  his  dearest  friend, 
to  preserve  your  smile  ?" 

Thus  might  the  duellist  defend   himself  against  the   re- 


16 

proaclies  of  society,  and  fasten  the  guilt  of  duelling  upon 
society  itself.  Suppose  now  a  revolution  in  the  opinions  and 
manners  of  society.  Suppose  the  man  that  has  fought  a  duel 
cuts  himself  off  from  all  offices  of  honor  or  profit.  Suppose 
society  treat  him  as  they  treat  a  thief,  a  cheating  gambler,  a 
vulgar,  beastly  drunkard.  Suppose  the  ladies  to  shun  him. 
"When  he  calls  they  refuse  to  see  him  in  the  parlor.  If  he 
appears  in  the  ball-room  the  ladies  refuse  to  dance  vv^itli  him ; 
nay,  they  even  retire  from  the  room,  and  complain  of  the 
managers  as  admitting  improper  company  into  polite  assem- 
blies. Suppose  no  lady  would  think  of  marrying  him  ;  if  she 
did,  society  would  forsake  her.  Suppose  no  father  would 
allow  him  to  visit  his  family.  And  all  this  because  he  had 
shown,  by  fighting  a  duel,  that  he  could  be  guilty  of  the  deep 
crime  of  attacking  the  citadel  of  human  life.  Who  believes 
that  duelling  would  long  survive  such  treatment  as  this  ? 

But  you  will  say :  How  can  we  treat  thus,  a  young  man^ 
gallant  in  spirit,  generous,  kind,  warm-hearted,  honest,  hon- 
orable, amiable,  elegant  in  manners,  cultivated  in  intellect? 
I  admit  it  is  hard,  but  this  is  the  only  way  in  which  you  can 
get  rid  of  duelling.  And  you  will  not  have  to  do  it  long. 
The  first  generation  must  be  sacrificed,  but  the  second  gener- 
ation, and  all  succeeding  generations,  will  be  saved.  Duel- 
ling, which  lives  upon  the  smiles,  M'ill  die  under  the  slights 
and  sneers  of  society.  Society,  then,  has  the  control  of  the 
practice.  It  will  flourish  at  her  bidding,  it  will  wither  at  her 
rebuke.  And  I  fear  there  is  no  hope  of  its  extinction  until 
the  popular  sentiment  shall  sympathise  with  the  law  of  God, 
which  commands  the  magistrate  to  shed  the  blood  of  the 
wilful  homicide.  The  arm  of  the  magistrate  must  take  the 
lead  in  directing  the  opinions  and  giving  force  to  the  senti- 
ments of  the  community.  If  they  treat  the  duellist  as  the 
enemy  of  social  life,  the  magistrate  must  pursue  and  arrest 
him  as  a  culj^rit.  He  must  advertise  him,  and  offer  a  reward 
for  his  apprehension.  He  must  apply  to  the  governor  of  the 
adjacent  State,  whose  soil  has  been  violated,  to  deliver  up 
the  homicide.  How  preposterous  to  pass  laws  making  duel- 
ling felony,  and  then  to  allow  all  the  parties  and  accessories 


17 

to  walk  at  large,  stained  with  blood  as  they  may  be,  perfectly 
fearless  and  untouched,  and  society  to  treat  the  hero  as  a 
favorite !  But  this  will  always  be  the  case  where  the  senti- 
ments of  society  do  not  accord  with  the  severity  of  the 
statute.  The  magistrates  will  connive  at  the  breach  of  the 
law,  while  the  public  consider  the  law  as  "  more  honored  in 
the  breach  than  in  the  observance."  Let  society  insist  on 
the  execution  of  the  law.  Let  governors  and  other  executive 
officers  be  forced,  by  the  voice  of  society,  to  arrest,  prosecute 
and  punish  the  duellist  and  his  accessories;  and  society  will 
not  long  have  to  mourn  the  fall  of  fine  young  men  in  single 
combat.  Until  this  be  done,  I  see  not  how  the  public  them- 
selves and  their  magistrates  can  be  exculpated  from  the 
charge  of  encouraging  the  duel,  or  clear  their  skirts  of  the 
guilt  of  all  its  tragical  consequences.  God  writes  down,  in 
his  book,  the  community  that  countenances  the  blood-shed- 
ding duellist,  as  accessories  to  his  crime. 

IV. — THE   BLOOD   OF    THE  BAE   AISB   THE   JURY-BOX. 

But  how  can  we  expect  that  the  mass  of  the  citizens  will 
be  very  scrupulous  of  shedding  human  blood,  when  the  tri- 
bunals of  justice,  the  very  sanctuary  and  palladium  of  our 
safety,  betray  us  into  the  hands  of  murderers !  Yes,  I  utter 
it  deliberately  and  solemnly :  the  very  machinery  which  our 
ancestors  set  up  to  shield  our  lives,  does,  by  abuse  and  per- 
version, entangle  us  within  its  crushing  wheels,  and  prove 
our  destruction. 

It  must  make  the  heart  of  every  feeling  man  bleed,  and  it 
must  make  the  face  of  every  patriot  burn  with  shame  for  his 
country,  to  think  that  there  is  no  protection  in  the  law — that 
when  the  lawless  passions  which  run  riot  in  our  land,  have 
smitten  down,  in  their  blood,  our  dearest  and  our  best — the 
beloved  father,  brother,  or  son, — the  mourning  relations  cry 
in  vain  to  their  country  for  relief.  The  country  is  deaf  to 
their  wailings.  She  delivers  up  the  innocent  and  the  helpless 
to  the  dagger  and  the  pistol,  and  throws  the  shield  of  her 
defence  about  the  rufl&an  and  the  assassin.  Her  tribunals  of 
2 


18 

justice,  so  called,  are  a  mockery.  Little  offenders  may  be 
convicted  and  punished,  but  the  pow^erful  and  the  wealthy 
escape ;  thus  making  good  the  saying  of  one  of  the  ancients, 
that  "laws  are  like  cobwebs,  they  catch  the  flies,  but  the 
wasps  and  hornets  break  through."  These  complaints  and 
reproaches  are  amply  sustained  by  the  present  practice  of 
the  courts.  We  prepare,  at  great  expense,  and  with  great 
formality,  all  the  insignia  of  justice ;  the  court-house,  the 
prison,  the  pillory,  the  judge,  the  prosecuting  oflicer,  the 
sheriff,  the  jury.  The  judges  are  sent  over  all  the  face  of 
the  land  to  punish  the  violators  of  the  law,  and  to  protect  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  citizens.  But  if,  by  this  means, 
jp7vperty  is  generally  secured  to  its  right  owners,  it  must  be 
confessed  and  deplored  that  what  is  so  much  more  valuable 
and  sacred  than  property,  even  the  life  of  man  is  left  unpro- 
tected, I  had  almost  said  is  betrayed  and  derided  by  the 
machinery  and  forms  of  the  law  itself.  Our  present  system 
of  criminal  trials  was  invented  and  framed  under  a  monarchy 
as  a  defence  of  the  subject  against  the  power  and  tyranny  of 
the  crown — of  the  vassal,  against  the  oppression  of  the  baron. 
It  was  thought  that  no  barriers  were  too  high,  no  precautions 
too  jealous,  to  shield  the  weak  from  the  violence  of  the  strong. 
Hence  the  boasted  trial  of  the  accused  by  a  jury  of  his  peei*s, 
an  wpostoUo  twelve — chosen  by  himself,  excluding  every  one 
who  was  likely  to  condemn  him  unjustly.  Hence  the  right 
of  being  advised  and  defended  by  the  ablest  counsel.  Hence 
the  right  of  that  counsel  to  cross-examine,  puzzle  and  brow- 
beat witnesses;  and  hence  the  glory  of  the  bar  when  the 
client  was  snatched  from  the  talons  of  arbitrary  power. 
Every  such  acquittal  was  hailed  with  pride,  as  a  proof  of  the 
noble  independence  and  courage  of  an  English  jury,  in  defy- 
ing the  terrors  of  a  court  thirsting  for  blood.  Every  such 
acquittal  clothed  the  brow  of  the  victorious  advocate  with  the 
double  glory  of  eloquence  and  of  heroic  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  the  innocent.  But  this  boasted  feature  of  the  English  law, 
the  trial  by  jury,  worthy  as  it  may  have  been  of  its  praises, 
in  the  circumstances  where  it  originated,  is  by  no  means  so 
worthy  of  our  love  and  adoption,  perverted  as  it  is,  in  this 


■   '  19 

republican  land.  Here  the  tables  are  turned.  Here  the  State 
is  the  weak  party  and  the  criminal  is  the  strong  party.  In 
some  very  aggravated  cases  of  murder,  where  the  victim  has 
powerful  friends,  or  was  a  favorite  of  the  community,  there 
may  be  a  public  sentiment  running  strongly  for  the  condem- 
nation of  the  prisoner.  But  in  most  cases,  where  the  killer 
is  rich,  and  of  an  influential  family,  his  conviction  is  next  to 
an  impossibility.  The  State  prosecutor  is  almost  always  in- 
ferior in  legal  ability  and  age  and  reputation  to  the  counsel 
for  the  defendant.  The  very  first  act  of  the  criminal,  when 
he  has  imbued  his  hands  in  blood,  is  to  secure  the  services  of 
the  greatest  lawyers  in  the  country,  which,  if  he  has  money, 
he  can  always  do.  ISTo  lawyer  can  or  will  refuse  the  task, 
however  bad.  The  worse  the  cause,  the  finer  chance  it  pre- 
sents to  the  barristei^  to  fleece  the  villain  well,  for  obliging 
them  to  pollute  their  hands  with  his  filthy  cause,  and  for 
saving  his  worthless  neck  from  the  halter.  The  more  desper- 
ate the  case,  and  the  more  odious  the  offender,  the  greater  is 
the  harvest  of  renown  and  wealth  to  the  successful  pleader. 
He  may  expect,  after  such  a  triumph,  to  be  sent  for  from 
neighboring  States,  and  that  every  rich  criminal  who  hears 
of  him  from  a  distance,  as  the  villain^s  refuge  in  time  of  need,- 
will  summon  him  to  the  rescue  and  say :  "  Ask  what  thou 
wilt,  and  I  will  give  it  thee,  even  to  the  half  of  my  kingdom." 
Under  such  temptations  of  ambition  and  cupidity  no  wonder 
that  human  genius,  art  and  passion  should  be  strained  to  the 
utmost  intensity  of  effort,  and  that  the  splendor  of  ingenuity 
and  eloquence,  stricken  forth  on  such  occasions,  should  com- 
pletely dazzle  the  mind,  and  conceal  the  hideous  enormity  of 
thus  moving  earth  and  hell  to  defeat  justice,  to  let  innocent 
blood  cry  to  heaven  for  vengeance,  and  cry  in  vain,  to  snatch 
an  outlaw  from  the  ignominious  death  that  he  richly  deserves, 
and  turn  him  loose  again  upon  society,  proclaiming  to  all  the 
desperadoes  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  that  they  may 
shoot  and  stab  their  fellow-citizens  with  impunity.  Every 
great  criminal  lawyer  ought  to  have  this  sign  over  his  ofiice 
door : 
"  Life  insurance  office  for  murderers  and  other  felonsP 


20 

Such  is  the  power  given  to  the  advocate  by  packing  the  jury, 
worrying  the  witnesses  almost  to  death,  artfully  wresting  and 
perverting  the  merits  of  the  case,  not  to  mention  the  secret, 
magical  sway  of  a  lawyer  of  commanding  character  over  the 
feelings  of  a  jury,  that  it  need  not  surprise  us  when  acquittals 
take  place  in  cases  of  such  atrocity  that  all  society  receives 
the  verdict  with  astonishment  and  abhorrence.  Let  it  not  be 
said  that  these  are  the  mere  chimeras  of  a  theorist,  who  has 
no  practical  knowledge  of  the  matter  in  question.  I  am 
confirmed  in  my  belief  by  the  declaration  of  distinguished 
barristers  themselves,  one  of  whom  said  to  me,  that  our 
criminal  trials  were  a  mere  farce ;  that  a  man  indicted  for 
murder,  who  had  numerous  friends,  could  easily  contrive  to 
have  his  friends  upon  the  jury :  and  another  told  me,  that 
he  had  heard  jurymen,  in  their  visits  to  town  shortly  after  a 
trial,  remind  the  advocate  that  they  had  given  him  a  verdict 
lately,  and  hinting  very  broadly  that  "  one  good  turn  de- 
served another ! ! !  "  The  country  has  not  forgotten,  and  I 
trust  will  never  forget,  the  atrocious  crime  and  the  almost 
equally  atrocious  defense  and  acquittal  of  Matt.  Ward,  of 
Kentucky,  the  murderer  of  Prof.  Butler.  A  man  universally 
esteemed  and  beloved — in  the  fulfilment  of  his  duty  as  an 
educator  of  youth,  administers  a  moderate  and  reasonable 
chastisement  to  a  little  boy,  one  of  his  pupils.  For  this  the 
elder  brother  arms  himself  with  a  revolver,  goes  to  meet  his 
unprepared  and  unsuspecting  victim,  and  shoots  him  down 
as  a  butcher  would  an  ox !  The  public  is  at  first  petrified 
with  horror ;  and  as  soon  as  it  recovers  from  the  stupor  of  its 
faculties,  the  universal  burst  of  virtuous  indignation  cries, 
that  if  justice  ever  claimed  a  victim,  it  must  claim  one  now  ; 
that  if  God's  outraged  law,  enforcing  the  death  of  a  wilful 
homicide,  was  ever  binding  on  the  conscience  of  a  jury  or  of 
a  community,  this,  this  was  the  flagrant  case  that  demanded 
its  execution.  But  a  lawyer  of  the  first  ability  and  influence 
was  soon  enlisted  in  the  defence  of  the  murderer ;  and  soon 
the  ears  of  an  insulted  country  heard  the  astounding  intelli- 
gence that  Ward  was  acquitted  ;  thus  proving  to  all  the  rich 
ruffians  in  the  country  that  there  was  no  danger  in  bloodshed 


21 


— and  proclaiming  to  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  that  there 
was  no  protection  in  the  laws  of  their  country,  and  to  the 
respectable  and  conscientious  fraternity  of  teachers  that  to 
touch  a  boy  with  a  rod  deserved  death,  and  that  the  only 
safety  to  their  lives,  in  this  nation,  was  in  allowing  all  their 
pupils  to  do  as  they  pleased !  Unhappy  widow  and  thine 
orphan  babe!  Ye  thought  that  that  beloved  husband  and 
sire  was  safe  in  his  legitimate  and  honorable  vocation,  under 
the  ample  shield  of  his  country's  protection.  But  it  was  not 
enough  to  have  the  light  of  your  eyes  taken  from  you  in  a 
moment,  by  the  hand  of  violence.  The  further  sting  must 
be  inflicted  of  impeaching  his  fair  name,  in  order  to  extenu- 
ate the  man-slayer's  criminality.  The  blameless  must  be 
blackened,  that  the  bloody  may  be  bleached !  and  the  poor 
mute  victim,  weltering  in  his  blood,  must  have  it  sounded  "  in 
the  dull,  cold  ear  of  death : "  Thou  wast  thyself  the  aggressor 
and  deservedst  thy  fate.  A  Ward  could  not  have  been 
made  out  worthy  of  life  but  by  making  out  a  Butler  worthy 
of  death,  and  to  a  Crittenden  belongs  tlie  honor  of  shifting 
the  bloody  raiment  of  Ward  ujDon  the  shoulders  of  Butler  by 
so  masterly  a  feat  of  legerdemain  as  to  deceive  the  optics  of 
a  jury ;  an  honor  in  which  I  trust  he  will  never  be  equalled ; 
an  honor  and  an  office  which  the  great  poet  has  assigned  to 
one  of  the  chiefs  of  Pandemoniun : 

"He  seemed 
For  dignity  composed  and  high  exploit; 
But  all  was  false  and  hollow,  tho'  his  tongue 
Dropp'd  manna,  and  could  make  the  worse  appear 
The  better  reason,  to  perplex  and  dash 
Maturest  counsels  ." 

This,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is  not  a  solitary  case.  It  may  be 
the  most  flagrant  that  has  disgraced  our  country,  but  there 
are  many  others  which  are  near  akin  to  it,  and  some  which 
have  occurred  in  this  our  very  State.  These  are  the  cases 
that  give  birth  to  "  lynch  law  "  and  "  vigilance  committees." 
Man  has  within  him  an  instinct  that  authorises  him  to  defend 
himself  while  he  is  living  in  a  state  of  nature.  This  right  he 
parts  with,  when  he  becomes  a  member  of  civilized  society, 


22 


for  the  reason  and  on  the  condition  that  the  State  will  protect 
him  better  than  he  can  protect  himself.  The  covenant  be- 
tween him  and  the  State  is  virtually  this.  He  says  to  her : 
"  ]^ow,  0  my  country,  I  throw  away  my  arms  and  my  armour. 
I  leave  my  bosom  bare  to  my  enemies.  I  walk  the  streets  in 
conscious  security,  relying  on  thy  might  and  thy  majesty  and 
thy  plighted  faith,  to  shield  me  from  violence.  By  the  faith- 
ful enforcement  of  the  law,  I  trust  that  evil-doers  will  be  im- 
pressed with  terror,  and  not  dare  to  assail  my  life."  Now, 
if  that  country  proves  false  to  this  high  and  sacred  contract — 
if  she,  by  her  legal  machinery,  defeats  justice — surrenders 
the  harmless  and  the  defenseless  a  prey  to  the  lawless  and 
violent,  what  wonder  if  the  citizen  should  throw  himself  back 
upon  his  natural  rights  and  say :  "  1  find  the  law  is  impotent 
and  worthless.  Such  is  the  delay  of  the  courts,  so  many 
tricks  can  counsel  make  use  of,  to  postpone  and  evade  trials, 
and  so  many  tricks  to  extricate  murderers  when  brought  to 
the  bar,  that  I  dare  not  trust  my  life  to  such  a  feeble  protec- 
tor. Henceforth  I  take  care  of  myself.  Come  revolver ! 
Come  bowie  knife  !  Be  ye,  henceforth,  my  gods !  Te  shall 
be  to  me  in  place  of  courts,  and  judge  and  jury!  Ye  will 
speedily  rid  me  of  mine  enemies,  and  will  not  give  them  time 
to  take  my  life  and  then  employ  ingenious  counsel  to  save 
their  necks.  Besides,  in  killing,  I  am  only  a  little  faster  than 
my  adversary.  Had  I  pulled  my  trigger  a  second  later  the 
State  would  have  equally  lost  a  citizen,  perhaps  a  better  one, 
and  my  family  would  have  been  the  mourners  instead  of  liis. 
And  now,  ()  my  country,  I  demand  impunity  from  thy 
courts.  The  inefficacy  of  those  courts  drove  me  to  my  crime, 
let  the  same  inefficacy  sanction  my  escape."  This  language 
would  come  with  peculiar  force  and  justice  from  a  Californi- 
au,  in  vindication  of  his  "  vigilance  committee."  In  new 
countries,  where  society  is  just  in  its  forming  state,  the  pub- 
lic arm  is  weak  and  the  private  arm  is  strong.  If  you  want 
a  people  to  be  quiet  and  law-abiding  give  them  safety  by  the 
courts,  and  vigilance  committees  will  vanish  like  the  shades 
of  night  before  the  morning  sun.  But  such  a  reformation  in 
the  courts,  such  a  protection  of  human  life  by  our  tribunals 


23 

of  justice,  I  despair  of,  as  long  as  the  present  system  of  legal 
counsel  prevails.  The  theory  is  fair  and  promising,  as  a 
security  that  the  accused  should  have  justice  done  to  him, 
and  not  be  illegally  condemned.  But  in  actual  practice  it 
works  most  perniciously.  I  seriously  doubt  whether  the  ends 
of  justice  would  not  be  better  and  more  speedily  attained  in 
criminal  cases,  if  the  lawyers,  except  the  prosecutor,  were 
dispensed  with  altogether,  and  the  protection  of  the  accused 
confided  to  the  judge  and  the  jury.  The  wrangling  of  the 
bar  is  the  cause  of  the  most  vexatious  delay,  and  the  most 
disgusting  exhibition  of  sophistry  and  dissimulation.  It  is  a 
scandal  that  the  legal  profession  should  educate  men  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  make  it  their  highest  glory  to  do  that  upon 
which  God  has  pronounced  his  special  curse :  "  Wo  nnto 
them  that  call  evil  good  and  good  evil,  that  put  darkness  for 
light  and  light  for  darkness,  that  justify  the  wicked  for  re- 
ward, and  take  away  the  righteousness  of  the  righteous  from 
him."  This  every  lawyer  is  bound  to  do  by  the  necessities 
of  his  profession.  He  must  identify  himself  with  his  client, 
and  all  the  art,  and  industry  and  zeal  which  the  client  would 
exert,  if  he  pleaded  his  own  cause,  his  counsel  must  display, 
if  they  would  be  faithful  or  successful  advocates.  The  great 
criminal  lawyer,  when  he  has  undertaken  a  desperate  cause, 
knows  that  every  thing  with  him  depends  on  the  issue.  All 
the  powers  of  the  man,  all  the  arts  and  subterfuges  of  the 
profession,  are  brought  into  requisition.  He  resolves  like 
Juno  in  the  poet : 

"  If  Jove  and  heaven  my  just  desires  deny, 
Hell  shall  the  power  of  heaven  and  Jove  supply." 
"  Flectere  si  nequeo  Superos,  Acheronta  movebo !  " 

It  is  perfectly  wonderful  that  any  lawyer  can  be  an  honest 
and  honorable  man.  It  is  perfectly  wonderful  that  any  in- 
tegrity, candor,  or  sincerity  can  survive  the  moral  trials  of 
such  an  employment  as  the  lawyers  are  daily  engaged  in. 
If  we  were  to  form  conjectures  a  priori,  and  guess,  previous- 
ly to  experience,  what  kind  of  characters  such  a  profession 
would  form,  we  should  predict  with  confidence  that  every 


24 

lawyer  must  have  his  principles  ruined  by  the  inevitable 
tendencies  of  his  professional  work ;  and  that  if  he  were 
saved  from  moral  ruin,  it  must  be  "  as  by  fire."  The  bar  can 
be  very  ingenious  in  defending  their  calling  ;  but  after  all 
that  can  be  said,  this  is  the  common-sense  view  of  the  case, 
and  every  man  in  the  world,  not  familiarised  with  the  specta- 
cle, and  every  angel  in  heaven  would  confidently  assert  that 
the  practice  of  the  law,  as  now  carried  on,  is  an  experiment 
how  much  ill-usage  the  conscience  can  bear  without  expiring 
under  the  torture.  The  common  defense  set  up  is :  that 
every  man  is  entitled  to  justice,  and  that  all  that  the  lawyer 
undertakes,  is  to  see  that  his  client  has  justice  done  him  I 
This  looks  very  plausible,  but  every  practitioner  at  the  bar 
knows  that  if  he  were  to  attempt  no  more  than  this,  he  would 
get  but  few  fees,  and  that  if  he  were  to  say  to  his  clients : 
Til  see  that  you  have  justice  done  yoii^  most  of  them  would 
put  their  hands  back  into  their  pockets  and  say :  "  I'ou  are 
not  the  man  for  me,  sir,  I  want  a  lawyer  who  will  see  that 
justice  is  not  done  to  me."  * 

*Let  any  lawyer  put  it  to  himself  whether  he  would  like  to  see  the  principles  on 
which  he  practices  law  brought  home  to  his  own  family  and  carried  out  by  his 
children  and  servants.  Let  us  suppose  a  case :  His  two  sons,  John  and  James,  have 
been  strictly  charged  not  to  take  the  fruit  from  a  certain  choice  tree  in  the  garden. 
The  fruit  tree  is  robbed,  and  John,  who  knows  that  James  is  the  plunderer,  is  ques- 
tioned by  his  father  about  it :  "John  did  you  take  that  fruit?"  "No  sir."  "Well,  did 
James  do  it  ?  "  "Why  father  there  are  many  circumstances  to  lead  to  the  belief  that 
James  is  innocent.  In  the  tirst  place,  James'  character  pleads  in  his  behalf.  He 
loves  you  and  would  not  willingly  offend  yon.  In  the  next  place,  the  tree  must  have 
been  robbed  at  night,  and  James  is  too  great  a  coward  to  go  out  to  that  distance  in 
the  dark.  In  the  third  place" — "hush  you  little  rascal,  you  know  James  stole  the 
apples,  and  if  you  don't  tell  the  truth  about  it  I'll  flog  you  both."  John:  Then,  father, 
I  confess  he  did,  and  I  ate  some  of  them ;  but  as  I  am  going  to  be  a  lawyer  I  thought 
I  might  try  what  I  could  make  of  a  bad  cause,  as  you  did  when  you  defended  Jack 
Sly,  who  stole  Mr.  Kennedy's  corn,  and  got  him  clear.  Father  didn't  I  hear  you 
whisper  to  Jack  Sly  atter  you  came  out  of  the  court  house  :  "  Now.  you  rogue,  I've 
got  you  oflF  this  time,  [f  you  ever  do  the  like  again  I'll  let  them  give  you  thirty- 
nine!" 

Another  case  :  The  lawyer  lives  on  a  farm  and  finds  one  of  his  hogs  missing.  It 
has  been  stolen  by  his  servant,  Ephraim,  who  has  sold  it  to  a  thievish  neighbor  for 
$5;  and,  as  he  knows  his  master  suspects  him,  he  begs  his  young  master  to  try  to 
get  "old  master"  off  the  scent.  Accordingly  John,  keeping  in  mind  his  legal  ap. 
prcnticeship,  and  anxious  to  redeem  his  late  failure,  ambitious  withal  of  the  glory  of 
beating  his  father  with  his  own  weapons,  undertakes  the  cause  ;  Ephraim  promising 
him,  at  the  same  time,  half  the  price  of  the  hog  \i  he  gets  him  off  clear.    The  lawyer 


25 

You  will  recollect,  joiing  gentlemen,  that  your  books  of 
rhetoric  caution  you  when  you  are  training  yourselves  up  to 
be  public  speakers,  against  choosing  the  wrong  side  of  ques- 
tions in  your  debates,  lest  it  should  confound  your  notions  of 
right  and  wrong,  and  accustom  you  to  the  hazardous  experi- 
ment of  enlisting  your  feelings  on  the  side  of  error,  and  of 
inventing  sophistries  in  defense  of  falsehood.  You  will  re- 
'  collect,  also,  that  in  the  study  of  moral  philosophy,  you  are 
taught  to  cultivate  sensibility  of  conscience ;  not  to  trifle  with 
truth  and  sincerity ;  not  to  simulate  conviction  when  you  do 
not  feel  it;  not  to  rack  your  ingenuity  to  hide  the  truth,  not 
to  put  on  the  air  of  sincere  zeal  in  defence  of  a  man  whom 
you  know  to  be  a  villain.  To  act  thus,  you  are  taught  from 
the  professor's  cathedra,  would  be  to  sap  the  vitals  of  moral 
principle.  These  moral  and  prudential  maxims,  intended  to 
save  you  from  poisoning  your  moral  constitution,  the  lawyer 
is  obliged  habitually  to  transgress,  and  to  yield  himself  up  a 
passive  mouth-piece  to  every  villain  in  the  land  who  oifers 
him  a  fee !  I  say  again,  that  it  is  a  miracle — an  anomaly  in 
moral  science,  that  human  integrit}'-  can  survive  such  an 
ordeal. 

Are  there  any  lawyers  among  my  audience,  and  are  they 
saying  to  themselves,  "  this  is  a  hard  saying,  who  can  bear 
it  ?"  Are  they  indignantly  charging  me  with  a  calumny  on 
their  fraternity,  as  if  they  were  all  corrupt  men  ?     I  answer : 

examines  Jeff.,  another  servant.  JeS".  testifies  that  on  a  certain  night  he  heard  a  hog 
squealing  down  in  the  hollow  near  Ephraim's  house,  and  the  next  day  he  saw  the 
offal  and  the  feet  of  a  hog  in  a  barrel  in  Ephraim's  cabin.  John  assists  his  father  in 
the  investigation  and  cross-examines  Jeff.  "What  time  o'night  was  it,  Jeff,  when 
you  heard  the  hog:  squealing."  *'  About  midnight,  sir."  "  Was  the  moon  shining, 
Jeff?"  "No  sir — she  didn't  rise  that  night  till  way  along  towards  two  in  the  morn" 
mg,  I  reckon."  "  That'll  do."  Exit  Jeff.  John  now  takes  down  the  almanac  and 
shows  his  father  that  the  moon,  on  the  night  of  the  theft,  rose  before  midnight — in- 
sinuates that  Jeff  is  a  tricky  fellow,  has  a  dislike  to  Ephraim,  and  in  all  probability 
stole  the  hog  himself  and  laid  the  offal  in  Ephraim's  house  when  he  was  absent. 
Ephriam  is  acquitted,  and  Jeff  is  punished  for  the  theft. 

John's  father  is  much  pleased  with  his  son's  presages  of  legal  ability — thinks  no 
old  lawyer  could  have  ferreted  out  the  truth  more  successfully — exhorts  John  to 
make  haste  and  get  ready  for  the  bar,  and  promises  him  that  the  first  cause  he  gains, 
and  the  first  fee  he  pockets,  he  will  make  him  a  present  of  $500.  John  then  informs 
him  that  he  was  Ephraim's  counsel,  had  gained  the  cause  and  is  entitled  to  the  $500. 
The  report  is  that  the  lawyer  soon  after  retired  from  practice. 


26 

I  mean  not  8o.  I  jnclge  no  man.  But  I  confess  that  I  look 
at  the  bar  witli  astonishment.  I  see  them,  as  a  body,  highly 
honorable  and  public  spirited,  and  I  give  them  credit  for 
cominc:  out  of  the  fire,  I  will  not  sav  with  unscathed  virtue, 
but  with  any  virtue  at  all.  They  are  salamanders  that  can 
live  in  the  fire.  The  habitual  and  indiscriminate  defense  of 
right  and  wrong,  from  day  to  day,  would  seem  enough  to 
disturb  and  subvert,  in  any  man's  mind,  the  foundations  of 
truth,  and  damage  his  intellectual  soundness.  But  there  is  a 
deeper  injury  than  the  clouding  of  his  mental  perceptions. 
To  act  this  theatrical  part  habitually — to  be  constrained  to 
make  daily  use  of  all  the  doublings  of  the  fox,  to  escape  the 
hounds  that  are  in  pursuit  of  him,  would  seem  enough  to 
obliterate,  in  any  man's  mind,  the  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween good  and  evil,  and  cause  him  to  glory  in  the  faculty  of 
"  making  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason."  I,  therefore, 
look  upon  a  moral,  honest  lawyer  as  I  would  look  upon  some 
iioble  man-of-war,  "  which  long  has  braved  the  battle  and  the 
breeze,"  now  come  into  port,  after  a  long  cruise,  mutilated, 
it  may  be,  and  damaged  in  some  of  its  timbers,  and  perhaps 
a  little  leaky  in  its  bottom,  but  still  above  water,  and  still 
capable  of  repair.  But  if  I  did  not  personally  know  this 
veteran  of  the  forum,  I  should  regard  him  with  some  appre- 
hension, on  account  of  the  infected  atmosphere  which  he  had 
been  breathing.  I  should  meet  him  as  I  would  meet  a  phy- 
sician just  from  the  wards  of  a  hospital  where  the  small  pox 
was  ])revailing.  "  What !  are  you  afraid  of  me,  sir,"  says  he, 
seeing  me  a  little  sh}^  of  his  approach.  "  Do  you  see  any 
pimples  on  my  face  ?"  "  No  sir,"  I  rei:)ly,  "  I  am  in  hopes 
you  have  been  vaccinated,  and  have  not  taken  the  infection." 
I  honor  the  lawj'ers  as  I  would  have  honored  the  three  fire- 
proof young  Hebrews  in  the  court  of  Babylon,  who  came 
out,  undevoured,  from  the  seven-fold  heated  furnace,  protect- 
ed by  some  lieaven-sent  guardian.  Tluis  I  Avould  make  my 
peace  with  the  lawyers.  If  any  indignant  son  of  Themis 
should  frowningly  enquire  :  "Do  you  mean  me,  sir,  by  your 
reflections  on  tlie  bar?"     I  reply,  "No  sir."     King  Mithri- 


27 

dates,  we  are  told,*  in  order  to  guard  against  being  poisoned, 
was  in  tlie  habit  of  swallowing  a  little  of  various  sorts  of 
poison  every  day,  and  thus  made  himself  poison-proof.  So  I 
trust,  sir,  you  have  swallowed  some  antidote,  some  moral 
Mithridate  which  has  kept  alive  your  principles  and  your 
honor  in  spite  of  the  dangerous  doses  you  have  so  often 
taken,  t 

My  audience  may  wonder  at  my  audacity  in  making  these 
free  remarks  upon  a  profession  which  holds  the  first  position 
in  the  countiy — and  they  may  suppose  I  am  relying  for  my 
protection  from  the  wrath  of  the  lawyers  upon  my  age,  and 
my  sacred  office,  together.  But,  in  truth,  I  am  trusting  to 
the  good  nature  and  sang  froid  of  the  lawyers  themselves, 
who  feel  themselves  so  strong  in  public  favor  that  they  will 
regard  viy  puny  attack  as  the  fii-ing  of  a  pistol  against  Gib- 
raltar, and  will  make  me  no  harsher  reply  than  was  once 
made  by  the  French  ambassador  at  Washington  to  a  lady 
who  poured  out  a  torrent  of  invective  against  Kapoleon: 
"Madame,  my  master,  the  Emperor,  would  be  very  much 
troubled  if  he  knew  your  ladyship  had  so  bad  an  opinion  of 
him." 

The  lawyers  are  so  much  accustomed  to  hard  knocks  from 
one  another,  that  they  laugh  at  these  passes-at-arms.  It  is 
nothing  but  an  intellectual  digladiation  with  which  they  have 
amused  themselves  all  their  lives.  A  contest  which  would 
set  two  clergymen  or  two  physicians  at  loggerheads  will  only 
serve  the  members  of  the  bar  as  a  joke  to  laugh  at  over  the 
dinner  table.  But  anxious  as  I  am  to  think  that  the  practice 
of  the  bar  is  not  productive  of  those  disastrous  moral  influ- 
ences which  my  theory  supposes  necessary  and  inevitable, 
and  ready  as  I  am  to  acquit  of  corruption  those  who  appear 
honorable,  still,  keeping  my  theme  in  view,  the  sacredness 
of  kuraan  life,  I  never  can  forgive  the  active  agency  of  the 

*  I  am  confirmed  in  the  correctness  of  these  opinions  on  the  tendency  of  the 
legal  profession,  by  the  suffrage  of  the  late  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold,  one  of  the  greatest 
minds  and  best  hearts  that  England  has  produced  in  many  an  age.  See  his  life 
and  correspondence  by  Stanly. 

t  Profecit  poto  Mithridates  saepe  veneno  ;^ 

Torica  ne  possent  saeva  nocere  sibi. — Martial  5:  77. 


28 

lawyers  in  rescuing  arraigned  manslayers  from  the  just  venge- 
ance of  the  law  and  thus  emboldening  others  to  follow  their 
example.  I  shall  hold  them  responsible  for  many  of  the  fero- 
cious, deadly  rencounters  by  which  our  land  is  signalized 
and  disgraced.  AVho  can  deny  that  crime  is  encouraged  by 
the  hope  of  escape  and  impunity  ?  Who  can  help  believing 
that  among  the  throngs  who  witness  our  capital  trials,  and 
the  ingenuity,  and  zeal,  and  success  of  our  great  barristers 
in  snatching  blood-red  murderers  from  the  halter,  who  can 
help  believing,  I  say,  that  many  a  spectator  of  such  scenes 
imbibes  a  secret  hope  of  a  similar  escape,  should  tie  ever  be 
involved  in  like  jeopardy?  It  is  highly  probable  that  in  that 
critical,  delicate  moment,  when  his  mind  is  on  the  balance 
whether  he  shall  pull  the  trigger  of  his  pistol  or  not,  his  will 
is  determined  on  the  side  of  killing  by  the  confidence  that  he 
can  fee  a  lawyer  to  pack  or  deceive  a  jury  which  shall  acquit 
him.  Rejoice  not,  then,  oh  victorious  advocate,  in  thy  might, 
Vhen  thou  hearest  thy  praises  blown  upon  the  four  winds. 
Th}'  brightest  laurels,  like  those  of  the  warrior,  are  often 
stained  with  blood,  and  bedewed  with  the  tears  of  the  widow 
and  the  orphan  !  I  hold  thee  responsible  for  rendering  the 
JURY,  once  the  impregnable  fortress  of  our  lives,  now  a  mere 
quicksand,  which  invites  the  tread  of  the  trusting  victim  only 
to  swallow  him  up  ! 

Oh  YE  EMPA^'XELED  12 ! — swom,  like  your  apostolic  mod- 
els, to  save  men's  lives  and  not  to  destroy  them — boasted 
monument  of  the  wisdom  of  our  Saxon  ancestors !  "  How 
is  the  gold  become  dim !  How  is  the  most  fine  gold  chang- 
ed !"  Your  verdicts  of  "  not  guilty  !"  have  turned  loose  the 
wolves  upon  the  sheep.  The  angry  ghosts  of  assassinated 
men  will  visit  your  midnight  pillow  and  whisper  in  A'our 
secret  ear:  "you  sent  me  to  my  bloody  grave."  The  wail- 
ings  of  widows  and  orplians  charge  you  with  cutting  ofi:'  their 
husbands  and  their  fathers  by  your  indifference  to  human 
life.  Remember  that  impunity  to  the  guilty  is  perfidy  and 
cruelty  to  the  public.  For  every  guilty  life  you  spare,  you 
immolate  a  hecatomb  of  more  precious  victims. 

Let  none  condemn  these  censures  on  the  old,  traditionary, 


29 

time-honored  forms  of  justice,  because  they  have  been  the 
laws  under  which  our  ancestors  hved  and  flourished  for  many- 
generations.  Many  institutions  are  good  in  the  main,  but 
have  serious  admixtures  of  evil,  of  which  they  ought  to  be 
purged.  Many  forms  have  a  conservative  tendency  in  an 
early  state  of  society,  which  are  cumbrous  and  retarding  to 
progress  in  a  more  advanced  age.  The  nutshell  which  pro- 
tects the  kernel  during  the  frosty  season  would  kill  it  unless 
it  should  burst  and  drop  off  at  the  arrival  of  Spring.  And 
thus,  as  Dr.  Arnold  most  beautifully  remarks :  "  What  is  the 
wisdom  of  Winter,  is  the  folly  of  Spring."  Old  legal  customs 
may  have  had  their  use  in  their  day,  but  something  better 
ought  to  be  substituted  in  an  enlightened  age. 

The  Edinburgh  Keview,  whose  high  position  among  the 
periodicals  that  have  controlled  human  thought  for  half  a 
century,  I  need  not  tell  to  this  well-informed  audience,  beara 
the  following  testimony  to  the  working  of  the  English  law  in 
England.  What  modification  and  improvement  of  the  ma- 
chinery have  been  introduced  into  this  young  country  I  am 
no  competent  judge  of,  but  it  does  not  take  a  very  keen  ob- 
server to  notice,  that  this  country  groans  under  many  of  the 
evils  complained  of  in  the  following  passage  of  that  famous 
Delphic  oracle  of  criticism  : 

"  In  spite  of  the  panegyrics  which  have  so  often  been  pronounced  upon 
our  laws  and  upon  the  administration  of  them,  no  person  who  is  practically 
acquainted  with  our  English  system  of  jurisprudence,  and  who  will  speak 
of  it  ingenuously,  can  deny  that  it  is  attended  with  great  and  numerous 
mischiefs,  which  are  every  day  becoming  more  intolerable.  The  difficulties, 
the  expenses,  the  tedious  length  of  litigations,  the  uncertainty  of  their 
issue,  and,  in  many  cases,  the  lamentable  delay  of  their  decisions,  are  but 
too  well  known  to  the  great  number,  to  whom  all  this  is  a  source  of  profit, 
and  to  the  far  greater  number,  on  whom  it  brings  down  calamity  and  ruin." 

In  this  young  country  we  oieed  not,  and  ought  not,  to  sub- 
mit to  old  abuses.  There  ought  to  be  reformers  of  the  law 
as  well  as  of  the  government ;  and  if  the  bar  and  the  bench 
do  not  provide  for  loosing  these  Gordian  knots  in  which  they 
have  long  entangled  the  interests  of  mankind,  let  them  look 
to  it,  lest  the  outraged  patience  of  the  people  cut  these  G-or- 


30 

(lian  knots,  after  Alexander's  fashion,  with  the  sword !  or, 
California-hke,  take  the  administration  of  justice  into  their 
own  hands.     It  is  not  for  me  to  point  out  the  remedy. 

"Non  nostrum  est  tantas  coroponere  lites." 

But  I  cannot  heheve  that,  after  so  much  experience,  there 
are  not  wise  statesmen  and  jurists  enough  in  the  land  to  alle- 
viate the  present  abuses,  if  not  entirely  to  remove  them. 

V. CHRISTIANITY   THE    SOVEREIGN    STYPTIC THE   APPOINTED 

8TAUNCHEK   OF   HUMAN   VEINS. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity  that  it  has  stamped  an  intinite 
value  upon  every  human  being,  and  thus  throws  its  heavenly 
aegis  around  every  human  life.  It  has  taught  us  that  the 
true  nobility  of  man  consists,  not  in  the  artificial  and  acci- 
dental distinctions  of  the  world,  but  in  his  possession  of  a 
SOUL,  capable  of  illimitable  progress  ia'virtue  and  in  bliss — 
that  the  highest  perfection  of  that-  so4}.}  is,  not  intellectual, 
but  moral  excellence — that  this  perfection  is  as  attainable  by 
the  pauper  Lazarus  as  by  Solomon  on  his  gorgeous  throne ; 
by  the  illiterate  peasant  as  by  Newton,  the  high-priest  of 
nature  and  interpreter  of  the  laws  of  the  universe. 

It  was  one  of  the  darkest  features  of  the  first  French  revo- 
lution that  its  leading  spirits  denied  the  existence  and  the 
nobility  of  this  immortal  soul  of  man,  and  adopted  the  creed 
tliat  man  was  a  mere  forked  animal,  of  little  more  importance 
than  a  radish  or  a  nine-pin  ;  and,  therefore,  that  the  rapid 
feeding  of  the  hungry  guillotine  with  human  necks  was  as 
innocent  an  operation  as  feeding  the  threshing  machine  with 
sheaves  of  wheat ;  and  the  demolition  of  a  hundred  thousand 
men  in  the  field  of  battle,  was  as  trifling  a  matter  as  the 
knocking  over  of  so  many  pieces  in  a  game  of  nine-pins. 
No  wonder  when  they  annihilated  Go^,  they  ignored  the 
noblest  part  of  man,  his  handiwork.  It  is  to  this  cheapening 
of  liuman  life,  by  disowning  his  immortality,  that  Robert 
Hall,  in  his  celebrated  "  sermon  on  modern  infidelity,"  has 
traced  the  imexampled  horrors  of  that  revolution ;  and  by 


31 

■which  he  has  accounted  for  the  production  of  such  prodigies 
of  ferocity  as  Robespierre  and  his  fellow-demons.  And  to 
the  same  cause  may  we  attribute  it,  that  IlTapoleon  Bonaparte, 
the  legitimate  progeny  of  that  atheistic  generation,  played 
with  armies  as  with  nine-pins,  and  made  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa  one  great  nine-pin  alley ;  showing  in  his  battles  a  pro- 
digality of  the  carnage  of  his  own  men  which  made  his 
victories  almost  as  terrible  as  defeats.  To  use  the  language- 
of  the  same  celebrated  Review  already  quoted,  his  was 
"  a  frantic  contest  against  the  principles  of  human  nature, 
and  the  laws  of  the  physical  world ;  against  the  rage  of  the 
winter,  and  the  liberty  of  the  sea."  '^ 

The  moment  that  the  world  catches  the  spirit  and  the 
genius  of  Christianity,  the  remorseless  indiiference  to  human 
bloodshed  will  cease.  That  religion  bears  not  on  its  banner 
the  eagle,  the  cock,  the  lion,  or  the  dragon^  signals  of  havock 
and  depredation  to  the  world,  but  displays  on  its  waving  white 
folds  the  figures  of  the  dove  and  the  lamb,  and  promises,  as 
tlie  sign  of  its  full  advent,  the  change  of  all  the  M^eapons  of 
war  into  implements  of  husbandry,  ai>d  the  disappearance 
from  off  the  earth  of  all  that  can  harm  or  destroy  the  crea- 
tures of  God.  That  is  the  time  when  death,  the  last  enemy^ 
shall  be  destroyed,  and  the  death  of  death  shall  be  the  final 
extinction  of  evil,  and  the  commencement  of  love's  eternal 
reign. 

♦Edinburgh  Review. 


NOTE. 
The  vrriter  of  the  Address  is  confirmed  in  hfs  remarks  orr  the  mob-cre> 
ating  tendency  of  the  present  practices  of  the  bar,  by  the  following  extract 
from  a  Baltimore  paper,  (the  "American  ")  of  Sept.  11th,  1857: 

Mob  Law  in  Memphis.— Some  short  time  since  one  Isaac  L.  Bolton,  a  citizen  of 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  shot  and  killed  a  mam  named  McMillian  at  that  place,  under  circum- 
stances which  marked  the  transactioni  as  a  coward fj  murder,  and  excited  public  in- 
dignation to  the  highest  pitch.  Bolton,  relying  upon'  his  friends  and  position,  fully 
expected  to  escape  scot  free,  but  was  arrested  and  pirt  in  prison.    After  haying  been 


32 


detained  in  jail  long  enough  as  was  supposed  for  the  public  excitement  to  subside,  a 
moveniuut  was  made  to  procure  bis  release  on  bail.  A  habeas  corpus  was  conse- 
quently sued  out  before  Judge  Fitzgerald,  who  directed  the  writ  should  be  heard,  not 
at  Memphis,  where  the  prisoner  was  confined,  but  at  a  place  cailed  Carrolton,  some 
distance  from  that  city.  It  is  chaiged  that  the  object  of  this  arrangement  was  to  se- 
cure Bolton's  escape  while  on  the  road,  if  the  application  to  release  him  on  bail  should 
not  succeed.  The  citizens  of  Memphis  became  highly'  indignant  and  exasperated  at 
the  announcement  of  the  proceedings  on  the  habeas  corpus.  They  insisted  that  Bol- 
ton should  not  be  removed  ;  the  papers  were  filled  with  inflammatory  appeals,  and  it 
was  very  plainly  intimated  that  if  the  sheriff  attempted  to  remove  Bolton  from  Mem- 
phis, it  would  lead  to  the  prisoner's  summary  punishment  at  the  hands  of  a  mob. 
Public  meetings  were  held,  in  which  the  most  influential  citizens  of  the  place  partici- 
pated, aud  the  most  determined  feeling  prevailed.  A  committee  was  formed,  who 
endeavored  to  prevail  upon  the  sheriff  not  to  obey  the  order  to  remove  Bolton,  which 
the  sheriff  refused  to  promise,  when  the  Mayor  took  possession  of  the  key  of  the  jail, 
aud  a  guard  of  three  hundred  men  was  formed,  to  prevent,  by  force,  the  execution  of 
the  writ.  The  judge  was  solicited  to  modify  his  order,  but  he  would  not.  In  fact, 
the  time  limited  for  the  execution  of  the  writ  having  expired,  he  has  issued  a  new 
one;  aud  thus  the  matter  stands.  The  laws  are  practically  nullified,  the  city  of  Mem- 
phis is  in  an  actual  state  of  revolution,  and  by  a  popular  movement  that  invaluable 
personal  writ  and  guardian  of  personal  rights  aud  liberty,  the  habeas  corpus,  is  forci- 
bly suspended,  and  this  too,  which  makes  it  the  more  remarkable  aud  the  more  to  be 
regretted,  in  the  interest  and  on  the  side  of  true  right  and  justice. 

The  state  of  things  at  Memphis  calls  for  earnest  consideration,  not  so  much  for  the 
isolated  violation  of  the  law  by  a  whole  community,  with  its  chief  Executive  at  their 
head  as  there  presented,  but  because  we  see  in  the  transaction  which  we  have  relate(j 
as  transpiring  in  that  city,  the  full  fruits  and  ultimate  development  of  a  state  of 
things  relating  to  the  admiuistration  of  criminal  law,  which  is  almost  universal 
throughout  the  Union.  There  is  a  growing  feeling  of  distrust  aud  insecurity  as  to 
the  administration  of  the  Ian,  which  is  likely,  and  indeed  will  inevitably  lead  to  just 
such  scenes  elsewhere,  aud  perhaps  with  the  most  deplorable  and  disgraceful  conse- 
quences. It  is  difficult,  under  the  circumstances,  to  censure  the  proceedings  of  the 
citizens  of  Alemphis,  with  the  Mayor  at  their  head,  as  unlawful  and  revol  itionary  as 
the  are,  and  subversive  though  they  be  of  the  first  elements  of  order  aud  good  govern- 
ment; for  they  saw,  through  the  legal  machinery  of  the  courts,  arrangements  made 
to  set  at  large,  and  free  from  all  punishment  for  his  crime,  a  man  whom  they  re- 
garded as  undoubtedly  guilty  of  the  wanton  assassination  of  one  of  their  fellow  citi- 
zens, and  the  instinct  of  self-protectiou,  uo  less  than  the  demands  of  natural  justice, 
impelled  them  imperatively  to  the  course  they  have  pursued.  That  citizens  of  other 
localities  have  had  the  same  provocations  to  irregular  action  is  but  too  well  known. 
The  laxitv  of  the  administration  of  criminal  law,  the  diliiculties  in  the  way  of  con- 
victiufT  criminals,  and  the  legal  facilities  aS'orded  for  their  escape  from  the  conse- 
quences of  their  misconduct,  are  becoming  an  unendurable  evil.  There  must  be  a 
change;  there  must  be  a  roforimition.  Crime,  when  the  guilty  are  caught,  must  be 
surely,  swiftly  and  severely  punished.  At  least  legal  t\>rms  aud  proceedings  must 
cease  to  be  a  shield  and  a  protection  for  the  criminal.  If  such  a  change  do  not  take 
place,  the  people  will  take  the  law  iuto  their  own  hands,  and  it  may  be  with  fearful, 
Moody  and  disastrous  results. 


1  -I 


A  DISCOURSE 


SHOWING     THAT 


*'€\t  €Kti\  I^Hhtlj  ^axtkx" 


AND   THAT 


HELL  AND   HEAVEN 


^KE    LIST    THIS    ^^OULD: 


BY  ELDER  J.  P.  NEVIll. 


Delivered  in  the  City  of  Raleigh,  June  14th,  1857. 


aiCHMOND,    VA : 

WILLIAM   H.    CLEMMITT,   PRINTER, 

No.  173  Main  Street. 

1857. 


A  DISCOURSE. 


"  One  generation  passeth  away,  and  another  generation  cometh,  but  the  earth 
abideth  forever." — Ecc.  i :  4. 


My  Friends: 

This  is  an  old  text^  the  opinion  of  that  wise 
man,  Solomon,  King  of  Israel.  We  agree  with  the  king,, 
that  the  earth  abideth  forever ;  and,  although  the  term  for- 
ever in  some  places  in  the  sacred  vrritings  is  limited  in  its 
duration,  nevertheless,  in  this  text  it  is  unlimited*  The 
history  of  the  past  proves  the  correctness  of  the  first  part  of 
the  text,  viz :  "One  generation  passeth  away  and  another 
cometh."  The  old  and  young  of  this  congregation  are  proof 
of  the  same  fact.  And  the  many  thousands  of  years  that 
have  passed  away  before  and  since  the  days  of  Solomon,  with, 
the  present  appearance  of  the  earth,  after  having  stood  firm- 
ly for  so  long  a  time  amidst  the  commotions  and  revolutions 
of  the  past,  go  to  prove  the  correctness  of  the  second  part  of 
our  text,  viz  :  that  "the  earth  abideth  forever."  The  re- 
turn of  new  forests  and  new  vegetation,  on  old  fields  long  for- 
saken by  the  agriculturists,  considered  with  the  various  de- 
posits beneath  the  earth's  surface,  all  go  to  prove  that  it  is 
likely  that  "the  earth  abideth  forever," — that  time  is  not 
about  to  end,  but  will  never,  no — never  end. 

Things  that  are  subject  to  decay  and  death  generally  show 
marks  of  the  same ;  such  we  see  in  the  wisest  and  best  of 
men.  Yes,  the  flowers  of  generations  wither  and  die,  they 
fall  at  the  touch  of  time's  scythe.  But  not  so  with  the  sun, 
moon,  or  stars — not  so  with  the  earth.  No !  they  do  not 
grow  dim  with  years,  time  does  not  make  impressions  of  an 
approaching  annihilation  on  them.  No!  for  they  are  the 
strong  works  of  Him  who  is  immortal,  eternal  and  invisible. 


Spurious  must  be  that  dogma  that  proposes  to  pull  down  and 
root  up  all  lieaven  above,  and  all  earth  beneath.  0!  mad  and 
jjresumptuous  man,  take  heed,  do  stop  and  think ;  lest  you 
be  sun-stricken,  and  swallowed  up  by  the  earth !  Eemem- 
ber  those  poor  deluded  fanatics  who  spread  their  tent  north 
of  this  place  some  years  ago,  to  behold  the  end  of  the  world. 
But,  poor  ones,  they  were  mistaken,  for  time  swiftly  passed 
them  by,  perhaps  unnoticed.  And  soon  it  was  said  by  all, 
'"See  the  new  day,  the  new  Sabbath,  the  new  year  ;"  and 
see  our  poor  deluded  friends  yet  in  this  world.  0 !  They 
thought  that  Jesus  was  to  come  and  take  them  up  on  high, 
where  they  would  not  have  to  work  for  food  and  raiment ; 
but,  poor  fellows,  they  have  been  left  on  earth,  and  I  thank 
my  God  for  it.  Remember,  too,  the  false  alarm  that  was 
made  in  this  State,  and  in  many  other  places,  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  alDOut  the  falling  of  the  stars  of  heaven, 
and  the  end  of  the  world.  Brethren,  have  you  forgotten 
that  night  ?  But  the  sun  arose  and  went  down,  and  night 
appeared  again,  with  all  of  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  they 
met  around  the  midnight  arch  and  not  one  of  them  was 
missing,  although  thousands  of  Christians  on  earth  said, 
fifteen  hours  before,  that  they-  saw  them  fall  to  the  earth. 
But,  brethren,  it  was  a  mistake.  Yes,  and  so  will  it  be 
with  all  those  that  are  this  day  looking  out  for  the  end  of 
the  world.  0 !  how  many  have  spent  life,  beginning  in 
youth  and  terminating  in  old  age,  in  sermonizing  on  the  de- 
struction of  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  But  time,  in  his 
flight  has  smitten  them,  sealed  their  lips,  cut  short  their 
frightful  story. 

It  cannot  be  that  Grod  designs  to  annihilate  all  creation — no, 
no  !  View  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  of  heaven  through  your 
telescope,  and  you  will  find  that  they  are  as  bright  now  as 
in  the  beginning  ;  then  what  proof  have  we  that  they  will 
fail?  that  they  will  be  destroyed  ?  None,  I  think.  Men, 
have,  as  I  honestly  believe,  misconstrued  the  Scriptures  on 
this  subject,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  ages  to  come.  The  day 
will  come  when  a  minister  would  be  looked  upon  as  a  ma- 
niac, to  preach  that  G-od  would  destroy  all  creation  with  fire 
and  brimstone.  Some  bloody-minded  speakers  grow  eloquent 
when  speaking  of  this  humbug,  the  conflagration  of  the 
world. 

In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
and  said  they  were  good,  and  this  was,  in  part,  no  doubt, 
in  reference  to  their  durability.  Now,  if  God  should  destroy 
them  and  make  new  ones  out  of  them,  the  new  ones  would 
not  be  better  than  the  old  ones  when  first  made  ;  for  be  it 


rememlsered,  that  God  does  not  make  improvements  in  his 
works,  he  does  not  improve  by  repeated  efforts.  The  gospel 
and  all  religious  efforts  have  not,  nor  cannot,  make  a  more 
perfect  being  than  was  Adam,  when  first  created.  It  can- 
not be,  that  the  transgression  of  Adam  and  Eve  will,  at 
some  future  period,  cause  Gfod  to  destroy  the  heavens  and 
the  earth.  N"o !  for  the  earth  was  not  a  party  in  the  offence, 
and,  as  such^  should  not  be  destroyed.  The  old  world  was 
destroyed  in  the  days  of  the  flood,  that  is,  the  people  were 
destroyed,  and  not  the  earth. 

I  want  you,  my  friends,  to  remember  this  when  talking 
about  the  end  of  the  world.  It  is  a  key  that  will  unlock 
2  Peter,  iii :  10;  and  many  other  difficult  passages  may  be 
explained  by  it.  The  people  are  frequently  addressed  in  the 
Scriptures  by  the  appellation,  "earth:"  "0  earth  hear  the 
words  of  the  Lord;"  "The  earth  shall  remove  out  of  her 
place."  Now,  all  such  Scriptures,  as  a  general  thing,  refer 
to  the  people  who  hear  and  remove  from  place  to  place. 
Eemember  the  children  of  Israel  journeying  to  the  better 
land  ;  hear  their  song  on  the  other  shore ;  think  of  Abel's 
brother  when  on  the  lonely  road  to  the  land  of  Nod.  Ee- 
member Lot's  wife  removing  out  of  her  place.  Grod,  in  his 
wisdom,  has  frequently  changed  the  location  of  man,  by 
which  he  has  rewarded,  as  well  as  punished,  as  will  appear 
from  the  history  of  our  race.  St.  Peter  speaks  of  the  pass- 
ing away  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  by  which  he  meant, 
as  I  suppose,  the  political  and  assumed  powers,  the  isms  of 
the  religious  world.  Behold  the  movement  of  the  Mormons 
in  the  beautiful  West,  whose  heaven  will  sooner  or  later  be 
destroyed.  Yes,  perhaps  pass  away  with  a  great  noise.  Ee- 
member ancient  G-reece,  once  the  mistress  of  the  world,  in 
civilization,  science  and  arts.  But  her  political  heavens 
have  passed  away.  Eemember,  too,  Jerusalem  and  ancient 
Babylon,  they  have  fallen,  their  heavens  have  passed  away. 

But  to  return  home.  0  what  a  great  political  and  religious 
heaven  is  ours.  But  I  fear  that  too  many  from  fallen  po- 
sitions are  being  received  into  this  political  heaven  of  ours. 
Behold  ships  from  a  distant  land  bringing  millions  of  all 
grades  into  this  great  heaven.  0  !  see  that  man  that  was 
banished  from  his  own  native  land  for  violating  the  law  of 
God  and  of  man,  ascending  into  our  political  heaven.  My 
brethren  and  friends,  I  tell  you,  of  a  truth,  that  this  great 
American  heaven  is  in  great  danger  of  hell-fire.  Behold 
Kansas !  look  north,  look  south,  look  all  around  at  State 
and  churchy  and  then  tell  me,  as  honest  men  and  women,  if 


6 

you  do  not  see  something  that  resembles  hell.     But  we  leave 
this  subject  in  the  hands  of  an  all-wise  Grod. 

Adam  was  the  first  man  of  his  order,  but  we  cannot  believe 
that  he  was  the  father  of  all  the  different  races  of  men  ; 
that  climate  has  caused  the  different  complexions  among  the 
different  nations  of  the  earth.  No — God  created  a  first 
black  man  as  well  as  a  first  white  man.  We  read,  in  this 
old  book  called  the  Bible,  (in  Gen.  6th  chap.)  of  Giants,  who 
were  a  different  race  of  beings,  and  in  the  process  of  time 
the  children  of  Adam  intermarried  into  this  family  of  gi- 
ants, thus  contaminating  the  races  of  men ;  and  this  was 
one  of  the  causes  of  the  deluge  on  the  earth. 

The  first  paradise  was  located  on  the  earth,  called  by  God 
the  garden  of  Eden,  and  in  which  Adam  and  Eve  were  hap- 
py, but  lost  their  felicity  and  home,  by  violating  the  com- 
mandment of  God,  who  cast  them  out  of  this  happy  place, 
into  a  hell  of  thorns  and  thistles.  So  we  see  how  hell  was 
found,  and  paradise  lost.  God  has  not  transferred  either 
from  earth  to  the  celestial  world.  God  in  his  wisdom  made 
ih-e  worlds,  and  located  man  on  the  earth,  and  fixed  the 
bounds  of  his  habitation,  beyond  which  he  cannot  go;  his  ce- 
lestial boundary  line  passes  through  the  eerial  region,  beyond 
which  man  has  no  business  to  call  him  away  from  his  home; 
below  this  great  boundary  line  are  our  cares  and  responsi- 
bilities, our  sorrows  and  our  pleasures,  our  heaven  and  our 
hell,  our  rewards  and  our  punishments.  Yes,  below  this  line 
are  the  histories  of  nations,  the  graves  of  all  the  dead;  the 
spirits,  too,  of  all  mankind  live  below  this  line  which  sepa- 
rates this  lower  world  from  the  celestial.  Let  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  starry  world  possess  their  own  country,  undis- 
turbed and  unmolested  by  the  citizens  of  earth.  Let  us  stay 
in  our  own  country,  living  or  dead,  in  the  body  or  out  of  it. 
0  why  desire  to  fly  away  and  be  on  earth  no  more  ?  why 
shut  the  eye  and  stop  the  ear  on  all  the  charms  and  melodies 
that  this  world  alFord?  It  is,  as  I  believe,  the  desire  of  all 
men  to  remain  in  this  world,  the  old  would  be  glad  to  be 
young,  the  sick  wish  to  get  well.  If  we  judge  men  by  their 
actions,  we  are  bound  to  say,  that  they  are  pleased  with 
this  lower  world.  My  friends,  Avould  you  not  be  glad  to 
know  that  you  are  to  stay  for  all  eternity  in  this  world? 
that  our  heaven  is  a  part  of  this  world,  or  if  you  please,  is 
in  this  world?  Well,  my  friends,  I  am  happy  to  inform 
you,  that  it  is  tlie  will  of  God  that  we  should  all  remain  in 
this  world.  Was  it  not  the  will  of  God,  that  man  should 
l)0ssess  the  earth  forever,  seeing  that  it  is  so  stated  in  the 


title  that  Grod  gave  "him  to  the  earth.  David  said,  "The 
heavens  are  the  Lord's,  hut  the  earth  hath  he  given  to  the 
children  of  men."  I  doubt  whether  any  one  can  show  that 
man  has  a  lawful  title  to  the  upper  world  to  possess  it  for- 
ever. Has  Grod  given  man  a  title  to  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars?  No  !  And  had  he  done  so,  according  to  the  teach- 
ing of  this  age,  his  title  would  soon  be  worth  nothing,  since 
they  say  that  all  creation  is  soon  to  be  annihilated.  But  our 
friends  that  teach  us  that  we  are  to  go  to  the  high  heaven 
after  death,  also  tell  us  that  we  will  all  again  return  to  the 
earth.  So  you  see  they  cannot  forget  this  lower  world,  they 
expect  to  come  back.  Now,  would  it  not  be  better  to  remain 
all  the  time  on  the  earth  ?  Now,  is  it  possible,  that  we  are 
all  located,  are  at  home,  are  all  in  our  own  land,  and  do  not 
know  it?     Such  is  the  case  with  the  most  of  men  living. 

Many  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are  this  day  in  the  church 
on  earth.  Are  they  not  all  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to 
minister  for  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation.  See 
Heb.  i :  14.  Doubtless  many  good  men  and  women  have 
done  more  for  their  friends  and  the  country  since  their 
deaths  than  they  did  in  life.  Do  not  think  that  men  have 
quit  the  field,  the  rostrum,  the  bar,  the  parlor^  the  world, 
because  they  are  dead.  That  great  man,  Dr.  Ben.  Franklin, 
has,  in  my  opinion,  made  and  communicated  to  the  world 
many  important  discoveries  in  the  use  of  electricity  since 
the  day  of  his  death,  and  although  dead,  yet  he  lives.  The 
improvements  of  the  earth  are,  in  part,  the  work  of  the  il- 
lustrious dead.  They  are  somewhat  attached  to  the  earth, 
and,  in  some  instances,  desire  to  prosecute  their  discoveries 
and  inventions  commenced  in  life,  and  in  order  to  do  so, 
they  are  permitted  ^to  animate  the  body  of  some  living  per- 
son, and  to  use  such  a  one  as  their  agent  or  workman  to  do 
their  work ;  and  in  such  a  case  the  spirit  is  as  happy,  per- 
haps more  so,  than  when  in  its  own  body.  The  world  has 
been  made  to  wonder  at  the  success  of  many  poor  young 
men  who  were  destitute  of  means,  and  living  without  an 
education  in  the  fashionable  world.  But  unexpectedly  they 
are  risen  to  distinction — they  are  the  great  men  of  the  na- 
tion. They  have  risen,  and  others  of  means  and  opportuni- 
ties have  fallen.  Now,  in  many  instances  of  this  kind  the 
success  of  such  men  has  been  owing,  in  part,  to  spiritual  aid, 
they  have  only  been  doing  the  work  of  some  illustrious 
spirit,  and  in  this  way  we  find  employment  and  pleasure  for 
tFie  dead  ! 

Better  give  your  son  or  daughter  a  good  and  energetic  spirit 
than  dollars  and  cents.   The  young  man  that  gets  the  spirit  of 


8 

tlie  wealthy  energetic  dead  person  is  far  better  off,  in  some 
instances,  than  those  that  get  his  property.  Thousands  of 
eminent  men  are  preached  out  of  this  world  by  ministers 
who  locate  their  spirits  in  the  high  heavens,  thus  placing 
them  beyond  the  possibility  of  assisting  the  living,  they  set 
them  down  in  the  stars  of  heaven  to  do  nothing;  but  this 
will  not  suit  the  energetic  spirit,  it  would  be  misery  instead 
of  pleasure.  Such,  perhaps,  would  please  the  indolent,  the 
man  without  a  nerve,  just  such  an  one  as  hid  his  lord's 
money^  being  too  lazy  to  loan  it  out,  to  put  it  to  work;  just 
such  persons  would  be  willing  to  go  to  any  place,,  if  they 
knew  that  they  would  have  nothing  to  do.  The  spirits  of 
all  men,  as  I  believe,  are  in  this  world,  and,  my  friends,  it 
is  my  oi^inioU;,  that  when  we  die  our  spirits  will  continue  in 
this  world,  and  that  we  will  be  happy  or  miserable,  as  is  the 
case  with  those  who  have  gone  before.  Our  happiness  after 
death  depends  on  the  life  that  we  now  live.  I  do  not  wish 
to  disturb  my  friends  who  have  long  been  preparing  them- 
selves with  wings  to  fly  away  to  a  home  in  the  stars  of 
heaven.  Then  permit  me  to  say  unto  you  that  yours  is  a 
great  undertaking,  something  that  you  will  never  per- 
form. 

Christ  and  the  apostles  met  with  demons,  or  the  spirits  of 
wicked  dead  persons,  on  the  earth,  and  not  in  another  world. 
And  the  discij^les  often  talked  about  spirits  being  on  the  earth. 
Now  it  is  impossible  for  a  spirit  to  be  on  earth  and  in  heaven 
at  the  same  time.  Spirits  or  demons  anciently  afflicted 
the  living  in  various  ways.  See  Luke  xiii :  11. — "And  be- 
hold, there  was  a  woman  which  had  a  spirit  of  infirmity 
eighteen  years,  and  was  bowed  together,  and  could,  in  no 
wise,  lift  up  herself"  Now,  what  caused  this  affliction? 
Was  it  not  the  spirit  of  some  dead  person  that  afflicted  this 
woman  ?  But  we  will  hear  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Adam 
Clarke  on  this  subject.  Said  he:  "God  has  often  permitted 
demons  to  act  on  and  in  the  bodies  of  men  and  women,  and 
it  is  not  improbable  that  the  principle  part  of  unaccounta- 
ble and  inexplicable  disorders  stilly,  come  from  the  same 
source.  In  ancient  times  the  spirits  of  dead  persons  some- 
times destroyed  the  intellect  of  living  persons,,  as  will  ap- 
pear by  an  examination  of  Matt,  xvii :  15 — "Lord  have 
mercy  on  my  son,  for  he  is  lunatic  and  sore  vexed;  for 
ofttimes  he  falleth  into  the  fire,  and  into  the  water."  This 
is  another  case  of  the  power  of  spirits  to  afflict  and  torment 
the  living  ;  in  this  case  the  intellect  was  im[)aired  by  a  wick- 
ed spirit.  Now,  if  wicked  sjjirits  impair  the  intellect  of 
men,  why  should  not  good  spirits  strcughten  the  intellect  of 


9f 

men  ?  Wicked  spirits  have,  i»  some  instances,  added  to  tlie 
pecuniary  interest  of  tlie  living,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  15th 
chap,  of  the  Acts  of  Apostles :  "And  it  came  to  pass  as  we 
went  to  prayer,  a  certain  damsel  possessed  with  a  spirit  of 
divination  met  us,  which  brought  her  master  much  gain  by 
soothsaying."  This  was  the  spirit  of  some  dead  person  that 
was  soothsaying  through  this  damsel,  who,  it  is  said,  brought 
her  master  much  gain.  The  damsel  of  herself  could  do 
nothing  in  this  art ;  but  the  spirit  of  this  dead  person  could 
do  as  much  in  the  art  of  soothsaying  through  this  damsel 
as  he  could  have  done  in  life,  and  when  in  his  own  body. 
Perhaps  this  spirit  was  acquainted  with  the  owners  of  this 
damsel^  and  wished  to  do  them  a  favor.  Or,  it  may  be  that 
this  spirit,  when  in  its  own  body,  had  contracted  a  debt  with 
the  owners  of  this  damsel,  and  died,  leaving  it  unpaid,  and 
now  proposes  to  pay  it  through  this  damsel.  Now,  if  wick- 
ed spirits  were  permitted  to  assist  the  living  in  a  pecuniary 
point,  why  should  not  the  spirits  of  good  persons  be  permit- 
ted to  do  as  much  for  their  friends  in  this  life  ? 

We  now  propose  to  examine  Matt,  xii :  ^'When  the  un- 
clean spirit  is  gone  out  of  a  man,  he  walketh  through  dry 
places  seeking  rest  and  findeth  none.  Then  he  saith,  I  will 
return  into  my  house  from  whence  I  came  out,  and  when  he 
is  come  he  ^findeth  it  empty,  swept  and  garnished.  Then 
goeth  he,  and  taketh  with  himself  seven  other  spirits  more 
wicked  than  himself,  and  they  enter  in  and  dwell  there," 
&c.,  &c. 

In  this  case  we  find  in  one  living  person  eight  spirits, 
seven  of  which  were  called  to  assist  one  to  regain  his  home 
in  the  living,  which  he  was  about  to  lose.  So  we  see  that 
demons  assisted  each  other  in  afflicting  and  tormenting  hu- 
man bodies  ;  the  last  state  of  this  man  was  worse  than  the 
first,  yes,  all  of  seven  degrees  worse  than  his  first  state. 
Poor,  unfortunate  man  was  this^,  in  hell  on  earth.  The 
spirits  of  wicked  dead  persons  were  destructive  to  swine  in 
the  days  of  Christy  as  will  appear  from  the  5th  chapter  of 
Mark:  "And  all  the  demons  besought  him,  saying,  send 
us  into  the  swine,  that  we  may  enter  into  them ;  and  Jesus 
gave  them  leave,  and  the  unclean  spirits  went  out  and  en- 
tered into  the  swine,  and  the  herd  ran  violently  down  a  steep 
place  into  the  sea^  and  were  choked  in  the  sea."  Were  these 
spirits  the  souls  of  wicked  dead  persons  sojourning  on  earth 
after  death?  Yes,  I  think  they  were.  So  you  must  admit, 
if  you  say  they  were  the  spirits  of  dead  persons,  that  this 
doctrine  would  have  been  true  if  preached  in  the  days  of 
Christ.     But  if  it  were  true   then,  it  is  also  true  to-day. 


10 

What  a  mystery  this,  two  thousand  hogs  destroyed  by  wick- 
ed dead  persons.  Yes,  many  thousands  of  dead  persons 
took  a  part  in  this  slaughter. 

My  friendSj  I  ask  you  to  lay  by  your  religious  prejudices, 
your  fears  of  becoming  unpopular,  religiously  or  politically, 
and  honestly  examine  this  subject  for  yourselves.  My 
friends,  in  the  discussion  of  this  wonderful  and  time-honored 
subject,  I  do  not  expect  to  add  unto  my  present  standing  as 
a  teacher  of  the  ancient  oracles  of  God.  Had  such  been  my 
object,  my  experience  of  human  nature,  of  the  religious 
world  as  it  was,  and  now  is^  would  have  led  me  to  a  differ- 
ent conclusion.  My  object  is  to  find  the  truth,  the  home  of 
my  fathers,  the  land  of  departed  spirits,  the  occupation  of 
the  spirit  after  death,  and  to  save  the  world  from  an  awful 
pulpit  conflagration. 

We  have  no  proof  that  those  spirits  are  at  this  time  con- 
fined in  a  hell  in  some  other  world  unknown  to  them  in 
life.  The  last  account  we  have  of  them  leaves  them  in  this 
world.  Now,  if  they  are  in  some  other  world  in  hell-fire,  as 
is  often  said  by  the  religionists^  I  call  for  the  proof.  Can 
you  produce  it  ?  If  not,  then  you  must  admit  that  thou- 
sands of  the  dead  are  living  in  our  midst,  and  if  so,  then 
you  must  find  a  hell  for  them  in  this  world.  In  Mark  xvi, 
we  have  an  account  of  seven  more  spirits  which  were  cast 
out  of  Mary  Magdalene  by  Jesus.  But  in  this  case  we  have 
no  proof  that  they  were  cast  out  of  this  lower  world  into  a 
hell  in  some  other  world.  The  Scriptures  inform  us  that 
Jesus  went  and  preached  unto  the  spirits  in  prison^  which 
sometime  were  disobedient,  when  the  long  suffering  of  God 
waited  in  the  days  of  Noah.  In  this  case  the  spirits  had 
been  disobedient  when  in  their  own  bodies,  but  after  this 
disobedience,  and  after  the  death  of  their  bodies,  and  after 
the  death  of  Jesus,  they  were  preached  unto  by  him.  But 
where  did  he  find  them — in  this  world  or  out  of  it.  I  an- 
swer, in  this  world.  Jesus  often  conversed  witli  the  spirits 
of  the  dead,  before  his  death,  and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to 
suppose  that  he  did  talk  or  preach  unto  the  spirits  after 
death.  We  read,  that  on  one  occasion,  after  the  death  of 
Jesus,  that  he  conversed  with  the  disciples  about  a  spirit, 
and  showed  them  the  difference  between  himself  and  a  spirit, 
separate  and  apart  from  the  body.  So  you  see  that  ours  is  a 
world  of  spirits,  that  we  are  surrounded  by  the  spirits  of 
past  ages. 

In  this  world  are  heavens  many,  and  hells  many.  It 
would  not  be  a  difficult  thing  to  find  hundreds  of  living  per- 
sons that  are  living  in  hell,  yes,  a  hell  of  torments,  of  sorrows, 


li 

and  of  woes.  I  have  seen  a  great  many  people  in  my  time, 
in  hell,  and  I  have  endeavored  to  keep  many  from  going 
into  hell.  Men  often  cast  others  into  hell.  Keraemher  that 
Jonah,  a  preacher,  was  cast  into  hell  by  the  men  of  the  ship. 
His  hell  was  in  this  world,  he  went  down  into  the  deep  sea. 
So  you  see  that  preachers  go  to  hell  in  some  instances,  as 
well  as  other  people.  Remember  poor  Judas  who  fell  from 
a  high  place,  who  found  a  hell  in  this  world.  Remember, 
too,  St.  Peter,  with  a  bad  spirit  in  his  heart,  he  too  was 
about  to  plunge  into  that  awful  place;  yes,  a  few  more  de- 
nials and  oaths  would  have  ruined  him.  I  knew  a  young 
who  was  cast  into  hell,  more  than  fifteen  years  ago,  by  an 
old  gambler. 

David  said;,  "  The  sorrows  of  death  compassed  me,  and 
the  pains  of  hell  got  hold  upon  me.  I  found  trouble  and 
sorrow." — Ps.  cxvi  :  2.  Now,  where  was  David  when  in 
hell  ?  was  he  not  in  this  world?  The  Apostle  James  speaks 
of  a  tongue  set  on  fire  of  hell ;  yes^  a  tongue  in  the  mouth 
of  a  living  person.  So  we  have  hells  in  the  present  state, 
and  no  doubt,  but  some  will  find  a  hell  after  death.  0!  how 
painful  is  the  thought  of  living  and  dying  in  hell,  and  go- 
ing into  hell  after  death  ;  to  find  no  enjoyment  on  the  great 
earth,  nor  on  the  wide  sea,  nor  in  the  spirit-land.  Man,  by 
his  wickedness,  makes  his  own  hell,  digs  his  own  pit.  And 
man,  by  his  good  deeds,  by  observing  the  law  of  his  God,, 
walking  by  the  golden  rule,  finds  his  heaven,  his  bliss,  his 
peace  of  mind. 

0  this  is  a  beautiful  world  of  ours — it  has  ten  thousand 
charms.  Are  you  never  delighted  with  the  song  of  the 
bird  ?  are  your  ears  deaf  to  the  notes  of  the  whippowil  ? 
have  you  no  taste  for  this  world  of  flowers?  See  those  young 
ladies  and  young  gentlemen,  gathering  sweet  pinks  and 
flowers,  they  are  happy  now,  they  find  some  bliss  in  this 
world.  Behold  the  bride  and  bridesrroom  surrounded  with 
youthful  friends.  Behold,  too,  the  bride-cake  ;  and  tell  me 
if  this  world  has  no  charms.  0  what  a  pity  that  men  will 
abuse  this  lovely  world  !  Some  call  it  "a  poor  old  deceitful 
world,"  "a  howling  wilderness,"  "a  lonely  desert,"  "an  un- 
eaven  and  rocky  shore,"  "a  vain  and  delusive  world,"  "a 
cheat,"  "a  trick,"  "a  bite,"  "a  nibble."  Yes,  say  they,  we 
are  disgusted  with  this  world,  we  wish  to  go  to  the  sky. 
Yes,  say  they,  this  poor  old  world  will  soon  be  destroyed. 
Now,  is  not  this  awful?  0  is  it  not  too  much?  David  said, 
"■The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  ;"  but  religionists 
say,  that  which  declares  his  glory  will  soon  be  destroyed. 
Say  they,  "the  stars  of  heaven  will  soon  fall,  the  sun  and 


12 

moon  refuse  to  shine."  0  yes,  you  are  destroying  the  things 
that  declare  the  glory  of  G-od.  Well,  my  friends,  you  will 
he  retained  in  this  world  after  all.  A  great  many  persons 
want  to  leave  this  world  just  to  get  rid  of  an  industrious 
life.  They  have  long  heen  looking  for  a  j)lace  where  men 
live  without  working  for  food  and  raiment.  Our  spirits  will, 
no  douht,  find  employment  after  death. 

Many  ministers  rely  on  2  Cor.  xii,  to  prove  that  men  go  to 
the  starry  world  after  death.  In  that  chapter  we  read  of  a 
man  that  was  caught  up  into  the  third  heavens.  This  man 
could  not  tell  whether  he  was  in  the  body  or  out  of  it  at  the 
time  of  this  vision.  Now,  I  am  of  the  opinion,  that  those 
heavens  were  in  this  world  ;  those  that  say  they  were  in  an- 
other world  do  not  propose  to  stop  in  the  first  one,  all  wish 
to  go  on  to  number  three.  But  let  us  remember  that  this 
man  was  injured  seriously  by  going  into  those  heavens — he 
was  wounded,  he  was  in  distress — he  besought  the  Lord  to 
remove  the  thorn  from  him.  Now  suppose  your  minister 
should  go  to  L3'^nchburg,  Va.,  and  return  wounded  in  his 
side,  and  in  great  misery^  would  you  not  suppose  that  he 
had  been  in  a  difiiculty  ? 

Dr.  Clarke,  in  his  comment  on  Eev.,  12th  chap.,  says  : 
'^Heaven  is  G-od's  throne,  they  therefore  who  are  advanced 
to  the  supreme  authority  in  any  state  are  very  properly  said 
to  be  taken  up  into  heaven,  because  they  are  raised  by  the 
favor  of  the  Lord." 

Now,  according  to  the  Doctor's  view  of  the  above  subject, 
the  President  of  the  United  States  was  raised  to  heaven  in 
March,  1857.  But  the  most  of  Bible  readers  take  all 
heavens  to  be  above,  not  considering  the  heavens  below.  It 
appears  that  some  persons  do  not  believe  that  this  lower 
world  has  any  heaven  or  hell,  all  are  located  in  some  other 
world  by  them.  But  when  men  contrast  countries,  or  speak 
of  America  politically  it  is  then  a  great  country — a  land  of 
liberty,  a  great  place  indeed.  Yes,  the  good  old  Nortli 
State,  the  good  old  Virginia  shore,  live  forever.  But  as 
soon  as  the  subject  of  religion  is  mentioned,  this  world  be- 
comes an  old  howling  wilderness,  a  barren  shore.  Now  is 
not  this  so. 

"And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven,  a  woman 
clothed  with  the  sun  and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon 
her  head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars." 

Now,  this  wonder  was  among  the  people  of  the  earth,  and 
not  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  starry  world.  The  wo- 
man was  not  in  the  literal  sun,  nor  in  the  literal  heavens, 
but  on  earthj  perhaps  she  was  a  queen  in  political  jjower, 


13 

and  tlie  writer,  to  describe  her  higli  position  among  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  makes  use  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  a  dozen 
stars. 

In  this  same  chapter  we  have  an  account  of  a  war  in 
heaven.  "  Michael  and  his  angels  fought  against  the  dra- 
gon," &c.  This  war  was  on  earth  as  well  as  this  heaven. 
The  angels  were  citizens  of  earth  ;  Michael  was  also  a  man, 
a  noted  officer,  one  skilled  in  military  tactics  ;  Michael  is  a 
family  name ;  are  you  not  acquainted  with  Michael  ?  The 
dragon  was  a  man — a  citizen  of  earthy  a  noted  chieftain  of 
ancient  days — one  perhaps  actuated  by  demons. 

The  ancient  fathers  frequently  gave  to  the  mountains  the 
epithet  eternal,  because  they  are  ever  the  same,  from  the 
creation.  In  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  men  were  of  the 
opinion  that  the  mountains  were  everlasting  places  of  re- 
treat and  safety.  Many,  doubtless,  looking  up  into  moun- 
tains, called  them  heavens.  Thus  we  read  of  the  everlast- 
ing hills,  the  holy  mount,  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  holy 
hill  of  Zion.  The  Mosaic  law  was  given  on  Sinai,  and  we 
suppose  that  many  looked  upon  this  place  as  a  heaven,  a 
sacred  and  holy  place.    Said  Dr.  Watts  : 

"  Could  we  but  climb  where  Moses  stood, 
And  view  the  landscape  o'er, 
Not  Jordan's  stream,  nor  death's  cold  flood 
Should  fright  us  from  the  shore." 

Now  I  ask,  where  did  Moses  stand  ?  Was  it  not  on  a 
mountain  ?  And  was  he  not,  last  of  all  seen  on  a  mountain 
many  years  after  his  death  ?  And  was  not  Elijah,  too,  seen 
on  a  mountain  on  earth  long  after  his  translation  ?  Thus 
we  find  men,  supposed  to  be  in  the  starry  world  by  many, 
yet  in  this  lower  world.  Our  .good  friends,  who  tell  us  that 
they  expect  to  go  to  heaven  above  soon,  also  tell  us  that 
they  will  come  back  after  a  while.  Now  would  it  not  be 
better  to  remain  all  the  while,  and  thus  save  the  great  trou- 
ble of  climbing  up  and  down.  Many  are  growing  tired  of 
this  world,  they  want  to  fly  away  to  a  starry  world  just  to 
sit  down  and  do  nothing.  Adam,  in  his  b€st«days,  worked 
in  the  garden ;  but  this  generation  think  too  much  about 
doing  nothing.  We  shall  find  as  much  to  do  after  death  as 
in  life. 

0  what  a  pleasure  it  must  be  to  the  old,  to  know  that 
they  will  soon  be  young  again,  and  find  happiness  in  this 
world!  0  do  permit  the  fond  mother  to  remain  in  this 
world  with  her  children,  as  a  ministering  spirit.    We  have 


14 

an  account  of  the  spirit  of  the  dead  returning  to  the  living 
in  this  world,  and  contending  for  the  property  left  children 
hy  a  will.  I  think  there  is  a  case  left  on  record  to  this  effect^ 
in  one  of  the  States  of  this  Union.  Let  no  one  suppose  that 
he  is  out  of  danger  of  a  person  because  he  is  dead.  Kemem- 
her  that  a  spirit  may  call  on  you  through  a  second  person, 
or  set  up  its  claim  in  a  court  of  justice. 

At  the  time  that  St.  Peter  was  imprisoned,  many  persons 
were  surprised  on  being  informed  that  he  stood  at  the  door 
of  a  friend's  house,  having  been  lead  out  of  the  prison. 
Some  said  it  is  his  spirit.  And  some  writers  inform  us  that 
the  disciples  may  have  supposed  that  Peter  was  killed  in  the 
prison,  and  that  his  spirit  had  called  to  inform  them  of  hm 
death.     But  it  turned  out  to  be  St.  Peter,  spirit  and  body. 

Says  Dr.  Clarke,  "Many  of  the  Jewish  doctors  have  be- 
lieved that  the  souls  of  Adam  and  Abraham  have  success- 
fully animated  the  great  men  of  their  nation."  And  Philo 
says,  that  the  air  is  full  of  spirits,  and  that  some,  through 
their  natural  propensity,  join  themselves  to  bodies,  and  that 
others  have  an  aversion  to  such  a  union. 

Our  Saviour  also  declares  that  Elijah  had  already  come  in 
spirit  in  the  person  of  John  the  Baptist.  That  is  to  say,  that 
Elijah's  spirit  was  in  John,  and  if  in  him,  then  it  was  not  in 
the  stars  of  heaven,  as  it  is  impossible  ibi-  a  spirit  to  be  in  the 
sky  and  in  a  body  on  earth  at  the  same  time. 

It  is  a  fact,  that  the  early  inhabitants  of  this  world  did 
not  expect  to  emigrate  to  the  stars  of  heaven  after  death  ; 
and  it  is  also  a  fact,  that  they  lived  and  died  without  having 
thought  for  the  first  time  in  all  their  lives,  that  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  were  to  be  destroyed. 

Poets  and  orators  have  taken  great  liberty  with  the  Bible, 
Let  us  remember  that  religion  has  been  established  by  law, 
and  that  the  Scriptures  have  been  revised  from  time  to  time 
by  men.  Let  us  also  remember  that  learned  men  are  not 
always  honest  men.  Let  us  depend  more  on  self,  and  that 
that  appears  to  be  contrary  to  sound  judgment  and  nature, 
let  us  receive  it  cautiously. 

The  study  of  man  in  this  age  appears  to  be  that  of  learn- 
ing to  live  without  working.  The  State  and  church  are 
filled  with  professional  men.  In  State  it  is  give  me  a  fat 
office  ;  in  church,  a  large  congregation  and  a  fat  salary. 
The  Scriptures  speak  of  sowing  and  reaping,  and  as  such, 
professional  men  and  ministers  would  do  well  to  walk 
through  the  field  occasionally,  in  order  to  understand  such 
business.     God  said,  work  six  days  and  rest  on  the  seventh. 


15    • 

Work  six  days  and  go  to  diurch.  on  the  seventh,  is  a  good 
doctrine. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  say,  that  this  is  my  view  of  the 
suhject,  and  not  that  of  any  church  known  to  me.  I  am 
now  fishing  with  my  own  hook,  and  select  my  own  bait  from 
the  Bible  and  the  great  gospel  field,  where  are  many  fish. 
I  felt  unwilling  to  live  and  die  without  expressing  my  reli- 
gious sentiments  on  this  great  subject.  Let  us  live  with  the 
fond  and  pleasing  hope  of  appearing  again  in  the  ages  to 
come,  among  the  children  of  men  on  earth.  Let  us  spend 
the  remainder  of  our  life  in  making  arrangements  for  our 
reappearance  in  the  land  of  our  nativity.  0  let  us  remem- 
ber that  our  felicity  and  honors  on  our  return  to  our  race 
will  be  determined  by  what  we  now  do. 

May  you  all  be  crowned  with  present  and  future  enjoy- 
ments. 


^*> 


i 


Zi. 


0 


A  DISCOURSE, 


SHOWING   THAT 

ESAU  WAS  THE  AIGEL 


THAT  WRESTLED  WITH  JACOB : 


PREACHED    AT 


^V\^^KE    BETHEL. 


ON    SUNDAY,     APEIL    11,     1858, 


BY  ELDER  J.  P.  NEVILL. 


RICHMOND : 

PRINTED  FOR  THE  AUTHOR,  BY  WM.    H.   CLEMMITT, 

1858. 


A  DISCOURSE. 


"And  he  said,  let  me  go,  for  the  day  breaketh.    And  he  said,  I  will  not  let 
thee  go,  except  thou  bless  me." — Gen.  xxxii  :  26. 

My  Fkiends: 

You  would  naturally  infer  from  the  history  of  this  noctur- 
nal wrestle,  that  two  distinct  persons  were  engaged  in  it. 
But  we  should  rememher  that  persons  and  things  seen  in 
dreams  and  visions  are  not  such  in  reality.  Perhaps  nothing 
in  Christendom  has  confused  the  minds  of  the  people  so  much 
as  that  of  taking  dreams  and  visions  for  realities.  Many 
persons  in  the  church  to-day  read  the  dreams  and  visions  of 
the  men  of  the  Bihle  as  realities — as  matters  of  fact,  with- 
out having  thought  for  the  first  time  in  all  their  lives,  that 
they  were  the  dreams  of  men  and  women  long  since  dead. 
Some  of  the  most  important  events  seen  and  read  in  the  sa- 
cred books  had  their  origin  in  dreams  and  visions,  and  must 
he  so  considered  by  the  church.  It  will  require  much  atten- 
tion and  close  study  to  separate  the  dreams  and  visions  of 
the  Bible  from  its  realities.  If  you  take  a  dream  for  a  real- 
ity, you  will  make  the  Bible  the  most  unreasonable  of  all 
books.  Jacob's  wrestle  with  an  angel  has  long  been  consid- 
ered by  divines  and  Bible  readers  generally  as  a  matter  of  fact. 
They  suppose  that  an  angel  descended  from  the  celestial 
worlds  and,  after  a  long  wrestle,  maimed  Jacob,  and  then 
winged  his  way  to  worlds  many  millions  of  miles  from  earth. 
But  this  is  not  the  case,  as  I  hope  to  show  you  in  this  dis- 
course. 

Jacob's  wrestle,  as  well  as  his  long  ladder,  extending  from 
earth  to  heaven,  were  dreams  of  his.  If  the  ladder  were  a 
dream,  then  the  angel  seen  and  contended  with  was  also 
a  dream.  The  angel  that  wrestled  with  Jacob  was  his  bro- 
ther Esau,  seen  in  a  dream,  not  Esau  in  reality.  The  cause 
of  this  dream  was  a  dread  on  the  mind  of  Jacob  of  twenty 
years'  standing,  which  was  powerfully  impressed  on  his 
memory  by  being  informed  that  he  would  meet  Esau  soon. 
The  fear  of  Jacob  in  this  case  was  caused  by  a  threat  from 


4 

Esau,  that  he  would  kill  him,  and  it  was  this  that  caused  him 
to  leave  his  father's  house.  This  unpleasant  difficulty  had 
not  been  settled  from  the  time  that  Jacob  left  his  home  up  to 
the  night  of  his  wrestle  ;  therefore  Jacob  did  not  know  but 
what  Esau  would  kill  him.  He  knew  that  his  brother  had  an 
army  of  four  hundred  men  with  him.  The  blessing  sought 
by  Jacob  in  prayer,  as  well  as  that  sought  in  his  wrestle, 
was,  to  be  protected  and  saved  from  the  threat  of  Esau. 
This  assurance  he  obtained  in  his  wrestle,  which  caused  him 
to  rejoice,  and  to  go  on  his  way  with  a  full  assurance  that  he 
would  meet  Esau  in  peace,  which  he  did.  The  Scriptural 
account  of  their  meeting  is  very  affecting,  and  does  honor  to 
the  memory  of  Esau,  for  no  one  living  or  dead  ever  acted 
more  honorable  than  he,  in  receiving  his  brother  Jacob,  and 
freely  forgiving  him  for  all  the  injuries  he  had  done  him  in 
youth.  But  strange  to  tell,  the  church  has  never  had  the 
least  sympathy  or  commendation  for  Esau.  We  often  hear 
eulogies  given  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob  and  Eebekah,  but 
no  soft  words  for  Esau,  who  acted  the  part  of  a  Christian 
and  brother.  Many  good  deeds  go  unnoticed  by  a  blind  and 
prejudiced  community. 

Jacob  said  unto  his  brother,  ''  I  have  seen  thy  face  as 
though  I  had  seen  the  face  of  God."  But  when  was  it  that 
his  face  appeared  so  lovely  in  the  eyes  of  Jacob?  Was  it 
not  at  the  time  he  saw  him  in  the  wrestle,  as  well  as  at  the 
time  he  ran  and  embraced  him? 

The  children  of  Israel  seeing  Jacob  halting  upon  his  leg 
soon  after  his  wrestle,  passed  a  prohibatory  law  which  con- 
demned that  part  of  the  kid  or  animal  corresponding  with 
Jacob's  wound  as  being  unfit  for  food.  Was  there  not  a 
cause  for  this?  and  if  so,  we  should  make  an  efi'ort  to  find 
out  what  that  cause  was.  I  believe  that  the  children  of  Is- 
rael believed  that  Jacob  received  his  wound  from  seeing 
Esau  in  a  dream,  and  that  they  believed  that  it  was  caused 
by  the  kid  that  Jacob  took,  and  whose  skin  he  wore  at  the 
time  he  obtained  the  blessing  from  his  blind  father.  The  sor- 
row of  Rebekah,  and  the  fear  of  Jacob,  caused  by  this  family 
difficulty,  should  admonish  all  persons  of  that  ancient  maxim 
taught  long  before  Christ,  and  which  he  adopted  as  a  part 
of  his  system  of  religion,  "Do  unto  others  as  you  would 
have  them  do  unto  you."  It  was  a  departure  from  this  rule 
in  Isaac's  family  that  caused  this  unpleasant  difficulty  be- 
tween brothers.  But  for  all  this  Rebekah  sufiered,  being 
deprived  of  the  society  of  Jacob,  her  darling  son. 

Little  did  she  think,  when  putting  the  goat  skin  on  her 
son,  that  she  was  endangering  his  life  and  happiness,  and 


preparing  sorrows  for  her  own  heart.  Little  did  she  think, 
when  sending  Jacob  away  to  remain  for  a  short  time,  that 
she  would  see  him  no  more, — that  death  would  come  to  see 
her  before  the  return  of  her  son.  Let  us  remember  that  jus- 
tice will  pursue  all  that  wilfully  do  wrong,  fetich  has  and 
ever  will  be  the  case.  Many  divines  pursue  some  ungodly  men 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  gospel.  Some  men  have  placed  them- 
selves where  they  cannot  be  saved  by  the  gospel,  forgiveness 
is  not  to  be  obtained  by  them  from  the  fact  that  their  crimes 
are  so  numerous — their  liabilities  so  great,  that  a  life  time  is 
too  short  to  satisfy  and  pay  the  debt.  A  man  like  Herod, 
who  caused  hundreds  of  precious  little  boys  to  be  murdered, 
cannot  be  saved  by  the  gospel  and  made  a  happy  man  in  this 
life.  The  Scriptures  say  that  some  men  are  past  feeling, 
and  I  would  add,  past  the  line  of  salvation.  I  have  been  dis- 
gusted by  seeing  the  gospel  offered  to  men  under  the  gallows, 
with  ropes  tied  to  their  necks  for  the  worst  of  offences. 
Brethren,  stand  back,  do  not  undertake  such  miserable 
cases.  The  following  lines  were  composed  by  a  minister  at 
the  funeral  of  a  man  who  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  a  horse: 

"  Between  the  stirrup  and  the  ground, 
Pardon  sought  and  pardon  found." 


I  must  confess  that  I  have  no  faith  in  such  conversions ; 
they  only  deceive  the  youth  by  flattering  him  with  the  idea 
that  he  may  obtain  forgiveness  as  he  passes  swiftly  through 
the  valley  of  death.  Many  important  discoveries  have  been 
made  in  dreams  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  It  was  through 
a  dream  that  Joseph  and  Mary  were  put  in  possession  of 
Herod's  cruel  design  to  put  Christ  to  death.  It  was  the 
dream  of  Pontius  Pilate's  wife  that  influenced  him  in  favor 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  at  the  time  of  his  triah  The  Messiah, 
as  well  as  the  apostles  and  prophets,  was  a  dreamer.  It  was 
the  art  of  dreaming  and  interpreting  dreams,  that  promoted 
Joseph,  Daniel  and  others.  St.  Peter  was  instructed  in  a 
vision  to  go  and  preach  unto  the  Gentiles.  This  vision  was 
as  simple  as  many  things  that  men  dream  in  this,  our  day. 
Yet  the  salvation  of  the  world  depended  upon  its  interpre- 
tation. The  gospel  and  all  its  ordinances  have  come  down 
to  us  through  Peter's  vision.  Let  us  remember  how  we 
looked  in  this  vision  before  its  interpretation.  We  looked 
like  four-footed  beasts,  wild  beasts,  creeping  things,  and 
fowls  of  the  air.  John  the  Baptist  said  unto  some  persons 
that  attended  his  meetings,  "0,  generation  of  vipers,  who 
hath  warned  you  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come." 


6 

A  young  lady,  on  the  eve  of  marriage,  dreamed  one  night 
that  she  and  her  lover  were  walking  along  a  pleasant  path, 
side  by  side.  When  wide  spreading  trees  waved  their  lofty 
branches  above  their  heads,  her  lover  turned  to  her  with  a 
smile  and  asked,  if  he  should  show  her  the  home  which  he 
had  provided.  She  longed  to  see  it;  and  they  pursued  their 
journey.  They  came  to  a  tangled  thicket,  through  which 
they  found  a  difficulty  in  passing.  At  last  they  suddenly 
came  to  an  opening.  A  grave  lay  open  before  them  ;  the 
cypress  and  other  dark  evergreens  were  seen  on  every  side. 
Her  lover  pointed  to  the  grave,  and  said,  "■  There  is  our 
home."  She  awoke  in  violent  agitation.  The  dream  made 
a  dreadful  impression  on  her,  and  in  a  few  days  after,  her 
lover's  death  was  announced  to  her. 

Afflicted  persons  have  frequentlj'  dreamed  of  remedies  for 
their  diseases,  which  proved  beneficial  on  being  resorted  to 
by  them.  An  eminent  Scottish  lawyer  had  studied  an  im- 
portant case  for  several  days.  One  night  his  wife  observed 
him  rise  and  go  to  his  desk,  where  he  wrote  a  long  paper, 
after  which  he  retired  to  bed.  In  the  morning  he  told  her 
that  he  had  a  dream,  in  which  he  conceived  himself  to  have 
delivered  an  opinion  on  a  case  which  had  perplexed  him  ; 
and  he  would  give  anything  to  recover  the  train  of  thought 
which  had  then  passed  through  his  mind.  She  directed  him 
to  look  in  his  desk,  where  he  found  the  whole  train  of 
thought  clearly  written.  This  paper  proved  efficacious  in 
the  subsequent  conduct  of  the  case. 

A  gentleman  of  the  law  in  Edinburg  had  mislaid  an 
important  paper  connected  with  the  conveyance  of  a  prop- 
erty which  was  to  be  settled  on  a  particular  day.  Most 
anxious  search  had  been  made  for  it  for  many  days,  but  the 
evening  of  the  day  previous  to  that  on  which  the  parties 
were  to  meet  for  the  final  settlement  had  arrived,  without 
the  paper  being  discovered.  The  son  of  the  gentleman  then 
went  to  bed  under  much  anxiety  and  disappointment,  and 
dreamed  that  at  the  time  when  the  missing  ])aper  was  de- 
livered to  his  father,  his  table  was  covered  with  papers  con- 
nected with  the  affairs  of  a  particular  client.  He  awoke 
under  the  impression,  went  immediately  to  a  box  aj)propria- 
ted  to  the  i)ai)ers  of  that  client,  and  there  found  the  paper 
they  had  been  in  search  of,  which  had  been  tied  up  by  mis- 
take in  a  parcel  to  which  it  was  in  no  way  related. 

Another  individual  connected  with  a  public  office,  had 
mislaid  a  paper  of  such  importance,  that  he  was  threatened 
with  tlie  loss  of  his  situation  if  he  did  not  produce  it.  After 
a  long  but  unsuccessful  search,  under  intense  anxiety,  he 


also  dreamed  of  discovering  the  paper  in  a  particular  place, 
and  found  it  there  accordingly. 

The  art  of  dreaming  has  never  been  lost,  and  I  see  no 
good  reason  why  we  should  not  have  as  much  confidence  in 
the  dreams  of  men  now  as  we  have  in  those  of  past  ages. 
My  father  once  dreamed  when  many  miles  from  home,  that 
several  persons  broke  into  his  smoke-house.  The  next 
morning  he  related  the  dream  to  several  persons,  and  on  his 
arrival  at  home  some  time  after  his  dream  he  found  that  the 
house  was  entered  on  the  same  night  of  his  dream. 

The  account  given  in  the  scriptures  of  Jonah  being  swal- 
lowed by  a  fish,  and  three  days  after  being  thrown  up,  must 
be  a  dream  of  his.  That  a  fish  swallowed  him  is  a  dream. 
But  that  he  preached  to  the  citizens  of  Ninevah  is  a  reality. 
The  scriptures  say  that  he  was  fast  asleep  when  discovered  by 
the  mariners,  and  thus  the  great  probability  that  he  had 
been  in  a  vision  for  some  time.  The  voice  of  one  saying 
unto  him,  "0,  sleeper  arise,"  changed  his  position,  and  it 
"was  about  this  time  that  he  was  released  from  the  confine- 
ment in  the  fish.  I  believe  that  Jonah  suffered  more  in 
this  dream  than  he  would  have  done  had  he  been  in  a  literal 
fish.  It  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  live  three  days  in  the 
abdomen  of  a  fish.  What  was  the  object  of  G-od  in  placing 
Jonah  in  this  condition  ?  Was  it  not  for  the  purpose  of 
punishing  him  for  his  disobedience  in  order  to  make  him  a 
better  servant.  The  account  of  the  gourd  that  come  up 
over  Jonah  is  also  a  dream  that  he  had  near  the  city  of 
Ninevah,  after  he  had  preached  unto  them.  The  gourd  came 
up  in  a  night,  and  perished  in  a  night,  it  grew  and  matured 
in  an  intellectual  soil,  and  was  cut  down  by  an  intellectual 
worm.  Many  good  men  and  women  take  these  dreams  for 
realities,  and  in  this  way  make  the  book  of  Jonah  one  of 
the  most  unreasonable  books  now  extant. 

The  friends  of  the  Bible,  so  to  speak,  have  inflicted  its 
most  injurious  wounds.  Christendom  freely  bleeds  to-day 
from  the  wounds  inflicted  in  the  dark  ages  of  her  history. 
The  layman  continues  to  feel  in  all  dominions  the  priestly 
yoke  of  other  countries,  and  even  his  liberty  in  the  Ameri- 
can world  has  not  made  him  free  indeed.  The  Bible  is 
freely  circulated  but  not  so  freely  investigated.  0,  how 
many  live  behind  the  curtain,  afraid  to  express  their  opinion; 
afraid  of  their  popularity — afraid  that  they  will  lose  some 
votes — be  defeated  for  some  office.  It  is  evident  that  many 
join  the  church  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  influence  of 
her  members. 

The  scriptures  say  that  Jonah  was  three  days  and  three 


8 

nights  in  the  whale;  hut  it  has  heen  ascertained  that  a 
whale's  throat  is  too  small  to  admit  a  human  body,  and  that 
whales  are  not  often  found  in  the  waters  over  which  Jonah 
was  passing  at  the  time  of  this  event.  Thousands  believe 
that  the  witch  of  Endor  called  up  Samuel  from  the 
dead,  but  this  is  a  great  mistake  caused  by  taking  the 
witches'  dream  for  a  reality.  What  was  it  that  caused  Saul 
to  seek  for  Samuel  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  witch 
of  Endor?  Was  it  not  from  the  fact  that  the  Lord  had 
ceased  to  answer  him  by  dreams,  by  Urim,  and  by  prophets? 
Being  dispossessed,  for  a  time  at  least,  of  information  through 
dreams,  he  sought  for  one  possessed  with  a  familiar  spirit, 
to  assist  him  in  obtaining  the  information  through  one  that 
was  at  rest  in  the  grave.  The  witch  asked  Saul  who 
it  was  that  he  wished  her  to  call  up;  he  said,  bring  me 
up  Samuel.  It  is  evident  from  this  conversation,  that  both 
Saul  and  the  witch  believed  that  Samuel  was  in  this  lower 
world,  that  he  would  come  up,  not  down.  Had  they  be- 
lieved that  he  was  in  the  starry  world,  they  would  have  in- 
vited him  down,  and  not  up.  But  did  Samuel  come  up  out 
of  his  grave,  and  complain  that  he  was  disturbed  ?  No!  no! 
It  was  not  Samuel  of  the  grave,  but  Samuel  of  tlie  intellect. 
Samuel  coming  in  a  dream — Samuel's  voice  and  mantle. 
The  fear  of  the  woman  on  seeing  Samuel  goes  to  prove  that 
she  was  in  a  vision,  in  which  state  she  detected  Saul,  who 
now  appeared  in  his  true  character  undisguised.  The  scrip- 
tures inform  us  that  this  event  transpired  in  the  night,  and 
this  we  offer  as  additional  proof  that  Samuel  was  seen  in  a 
dreavn.  The  condition  of  Saul  at  the  time  he  enquired  of 
the  dead  respecting  what  would  be  his  success  in  the  future, 
was  calculated  to  depress  his  spirit,  and  to  unnerve  him  on 
the  battlefield.  Said  Samuel  unto  Saul,  "You  and  your 
sons  shall  be  with  me  to-morrow." 

The  bravest  of  men  have  seen  their  defeat  in  dreams  just 
on  the  verge  of  an  engagement.  Men  and  women  frequently 
see  in  dreams  approaching  calamities,  and  even  death.  Who 
has  not  been  warned  in  some  way  in  dreams?  Our  misfor- 
tunes are  at  times  seen  in  the  dreams  of  others.  I  remem- 
ber when  it  was  the  custom  to  relate  dreams  to  the  church. 
The  ministers  fifty  years  ago  believed  that  calls  to  preach 
the  gospel  came  through  dreams  and  visions,  and  it  was 
through  this  medium  that  the  old  folks  received  tlieir  min- 
isters, and  in  whom  they  had  unbounded  confidence.  Never 
was  the  cliurch  more  pure,  nor  the  ministry  better  supplied 
with  honcst-licarted  men  tiian  in  tliose  days  of  dreams,  when 
ehe  had  no  money  to  give.    Strip  her  of  her  money,  and  her 


ministers  by  thousands  will  forsake  her.  Have  they  not 
already  said  in  many  places^  "  Increase  my  wages,  or  I  will 
leave  you."  The  first  thing  to  be  done  in  many  places  in 
order  to  call  a  minister,  is  to  see  how  much  money  can  be 
raised.  iSometimes  the  church  says,  we  like  a  little  more 
money.  Can't  you  help  to  raise  it?  We  are  only  waiting 
to  get  it;  and  just  as  soon  as  it  can  be  had  we  will  call  him. 
1  speak  of  this  only  to  show  the  difference  between  ministers 
in  the  days  of  dreams,  and  ministers  of  the  present  time. 
The  time  has  been  when  it  would  scare  a  minister  to  offer 
him  money  for  preaching.  You  could  not  get  him  to  touch 
it.  Such  a  gift  would  have  been  more  bitter  than  the  wild 
gourds  in  the  great  pot  at  Gilgal.  We  have  heard  of  some 
ministers  in  this  country  who  years  ago  were  urged  by  friends 
to  receive  gifts  of  money  for  preaching,  but  suffered  so  much 
from  having  received  it  that  they  declared  they  would  never 
receive  any  more.  I  only  refer  to  such  cases  to  show  how 
things  of  this  nature  have  changed. 

God  came  to  Abimelech  in  a  dream  by  night,  and  said  to 
him,  "Behold,  thou  art  but  a  dead  man  for  the  woman 
which  thou  hast  taken,  for  she  is  a  man's  wife."  Abimelech 
took  Sarah,  Abraham's  wife,  to  be  his  sister,  an  unmarried 
lady  ;  but  detected  his  mistake  in  a  dream.  Was  not  this 
sufficient  to  prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  this  man  that  Abra- 
ham and  Sarah  had  not  fully  and  fairly  represented  the 
subject  to  him  ?  Was  this  not  also  calculated  to  make 
Abimelech  a  strong  believer  in  dreams  ?  Solomon's  future 
honor  and  wisdom  as  a  king,  were  the  results  of  a  dream  in, 
which  the  following  conversation  took  place  between  himself 
and  his  God  :  "  In  Gibeon  the  Lord  appeared  to  Solomon 
in  a  dream  by  night;  and  God  said^  Ask  what  I  shall  give 
thee.  And  Solomon  said.  Thou  hast  shown  unto  thy  ser- 
vant David,  my  father,  great  mercy,  according  as  he  walked, 
before  thee  in  truth  and  righteousness,  and  in  upright- 
ness of  heart  with  thee ;  and  thou  hast  kept  for  him  this 
great  kindness,  that  thou  hast  given  him  a  son  to  sit  on  his 
throne,  as  it  is  this  day.  And  now,  0  Lord,  my  God,  thou 
hast  made  thy  servant  king  instead  of  David  my  father, 
and  I  am  but  a  little  child,  I  know  not  how  to  go  out  or 
come  in.  And  thy  servant  is  in  the  midst  of  thy  people 
which  thou  hast  chosen,  a  great  people  that  cannot  be  num- 
bered nor  counted  for  multitude.  Give,  therefore,  thy  ser- 
vant an  understanding  heart  to  judge  thy  people,  that  I  may 
discern  between  good  and  bad;  for  who  is  able  to  judge  this, 
thy,  so  great  a  people  ?  And  the  speech  pleased  the  Lord, 
that  Solomon  had  asked  this  thing.    And  God  said  unto  him ; 


10 

Because  thou  liast  asked  this  thing,  and  hast  not  asked  for 
thyself  long  life,  neither  hast  asked  riches  for  thyself,  nor 
hast  asked  the  life  of  thine  enemies,  but  hast  asked  for  thy- 
self understanding  to  discern  judgment :  Behold  I  have 
done  according  to  thy  words.  Go,  I  have  given  thee  a  wise 
and  an  understanding  heart.  So  that  there  was  none  like 
thee  before  thee,  neither  after  thee,  shall  any  arise  like  unto 
thee.  And  I  have  also  given  thee  that  which  thou  hast  not 
asked,  both  riches  and  honor,  so  that  there  shall  not  be  any 
among  the  kings  like  unto  thee  all  thy  days.  And  if  thou 
wilt  walk  in  my  ways  to  keep  my  statutes  and  my  command- 
ments, as  thy  father  David  did  walk,  then  I  will  lengthen 
thy  days.  And  Solomon  awoke  ;  and  behold  it  was  a 
dream." 

I  have  read  this  nocturnal  dream  to  show  you  how  men 
and  kings  of  past  ages  were  instructed  by  God.  In  this 
dream  Solomon  refers  to  his  father  David,  then  dead,  also  to 
the  children  of  Israel  as  being  a  great  and  numerous  na- 
tion. He  also  saw  himself  in  his  dream,  and  compared 
himself  to  a  little  child.  We  are  all  bound  to  admit  the 
fact,  that  Solomon's  wisdom  and  riches  were  the  results  of 
his  dream,  and  he,  no  doubt,  often  looked  back  with  pleasure 
on  his  dreams.  I  believe  that  thousands  of  men  and  women 
living  to-day  have  been  blessed  through  the  medium  of 
dreams.  One  hundred  years  ago  ministers  of  the  gospel 
generally  taught  the  people  that  a  call  to  preach  came  to 
men  in  dreams  and  visions,  and  that  a  voice  was  heard 
commanding  the  man  to  go  forth.  Such  impressions  were 
of  lasting  duration,  causing  the  man  of  God  to  live  near 
the  cross  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  One  hundred  years  ago  the 
church  believed  in  dreams  and  visions,  which  were  frequent- 
ly related  in  church  and  approved  of  by  the  wisest  and  best 
of  men  and  women.  But  now  dreams  are  rejected,  since 
benches  have  been  introduced  into  the  altar  as  the  place  for 
sinners  to  receive  the  forgiveness  of  sins.  The  old  folks  saw 
God  when  dreaming  ;  but  now  the  people  see  him  when  ex- 
cited in  a  great  revival,  as  they  say.  But  I  must  confess 
that  I  have  more  confidence  in  dreams  and  visions  than  I 
have  in  many  of  the  long  protracted  meetings  of  this  age. 
People  are  not  so  apt  to  be  deceived  in  dreams — have  but 
little  chance  to  pass  themselves  off  on  the  public  for  saints, 
when  they  are  rot  such — have  no  chance  to  show  off  to  an 
advantage,  by  exhibiting  a  fine  dress  or  a  lovely  face — can- 
not cast  a  sheep's  eye  to  an  advantage — cannot  start  an  ex- 
citement by  groaning  and  shouting — have  rather  a  bad 
chance  to  effect  the  hearts  of  the  people  by  telling  how  fa- 


ii 

tlier^  mother^  brother  and  sister  died.  The  impressions 
made  on  the  mind  in  dreams  and  visions  are  sufficient  to  lead 
men  to  believe  in  a  spiritual  life,  and  to  strengthen  our  faith 
and  confidence  in  the  testimony  of  the  divine  books,  that 
originated,  in  part,  in  dreams  and  visions.  If  we  had  never 
experienced  anything  in  dreams  of  our  own,  we  would  not 
be  so  well  prepared  to  appreciate  the  dreams  and  visions  of 
the  men  of  the  Bible,  Who  is  the  author  of  dreams  and 
visions  ?  God  or  man  ?  Who  first  taught  men  to  dream  ? 
Was  it  not  that  being  that  made  the  night  for  sleep?  I 
consider  that  God  is  as  much  the  author  of  dreams  as  he  is 
the  author  of  the  human  language ;  if  he  first  taught  man 
to  speak  he  also  first  taught  him  to  dream.  That  God  is 
the  author  of  some  dreams  and  visions  is  sustained  from  the 
fact  that  many  parts  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  are 
composed  of  dreams  and  visions  in  which  God  himself  is 
made  to  appear  and  promise  to  give  great  and  precious 
blessings  unto  men.  Why  not  have  as  much  faith  in  the 
dreams  of  men  now  living  as  we  have  in  those  of  men  long 
since  dead  ?  Why  not  believe  that  God  has  continued  to 
bless  men  and  women  in  dreams  and  visions  in  all  ages  of 
the  world's  history? 

It  is  said  that  a  youth  in  the  north  saw^  in  a  dream,  his 
brother  in  the  Pacific  Hotel,  in  St.  Louis,  on  the  same  night 
that  it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  gave  the  alarm  in  his 
dream,  exclaiming  in  a  loud  voice,  "The  hotel  is  on  fire,  and 
brother  is  burning  up!"  Had  this  youth  lived  in  the  pro- 
phetic age  he  would  have  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
world.  But  things  that  promoted  men  in  other  ages  and 
countries,  now  pass  away  almost  unnoticed. 

Job  said,  '•'  Why  dost  thou  strive  against  him,  for  he 
giveth  not  account  of  any  of  his  matters ;  for  God  speaketh 
once,  yea,  twice,  yet  man  perceiveth  it  not.  In  a  dream — in 
a  vision  of  the  night — when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon  men  in 
slumberings  upon  the  bed.  then  he  openeth  the  ears  of  men 
and  sealeth  their  instruction.^,  that  he  may  withdraw  man 
from  his  purpose  and  hide  pride  from  him.  He  keepeth  back 
his  soul  from  the  pit  and  his  life  from  perishing  by  the 
sword." 

We  have  quoted  largely  from  Job  to  establish  the  follow- 
ing facts  :  1.  That  God  speaks  to  men  on  their  beds  when 
asleep.  2.  That  the  object  of  his  speaking  is  to  benefit  man 
by  turning  him  from  his  intentions  and  designs,  and  in  so 
doing  saves  him  from  the  pit  and  from  the  sword;  yes,  saves 
him  from  plunging  headlong  into  hell-fire;  saves  him  from 


12 

coming  into  collision  witli  the  sword,  pistol,  musket,  and 
clutches  of  warlike  men. 

Again,  Job  said,  "'Fear  came  upon  him  which  caused 
him  to  tremble,  and  all  his  bones  to  shake.  Hear,  hear, 
and  a  spirit  passed  before  his  face ;  the  hair  of  his  flesh 
stood  up.  The  spirit  stood  still,  but  he  could  not  discern 
the  form  thereof.  An  image  was  before  his  eyes  ;  then  was 
silence,  and  he  heard  a  voice,  saying,  shall  mortal  man  be 
more  just  than  Grod?  Shall  a  man  be  more  pure  than  his 
Maker?" 

We  have  quoted  this  part  of  Job's  vision  to  show  you  how 
men  were  operated  on  anciently,  in  dreams.  Judging  from 
the  contents  of  this  part  of  the  history  of  Job's  trials,  we 
conclude  that  his  frightful  situation,  at  the  time  that  a  spirit 
passed  before  his  eyes,  was  to  instruct  him  in  relation  to 
approaching  trials  and  persecutions.  Poor  afflicted  Job, 
among  other  troubles,  had  at  home  a  devil  in  the  shape  of 
a  wife.  It  is  reasonable  to  conclude  that  it  was  the  power- 
ful impressions  made  on  his  mind  in  dreams,  that  enabled 
him  to  stand  steadfastly  amidst  all  of  his  temptations,  and 
afflictions,  and  losses. 

The  notion  that  all  divine  instruction  and  spiritual  influ- 
ence come  through  written  words  or  through  preaching,  is, 
as  I  believe,  a  false  position,  efiecting  the  spiritual  interest 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  human  family.  It  does  not  require 
an  education  in  order  to  receive  spiritual  aid.  Nor  does  an 
education  exclude  any  one  from  receiving  divine  and  spirit- 
ual communications.  It  is  evident  that  the  gospel  was  first 
given  to  the  illiterate,  and  that  it  has  come  down,  in  part, 
at  least,  through  them.  Yes,  we  find  that  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  were  first  in  the  hands  of  an  illiterate  fisherman, 
by  whose  faithfulness  the  world  has  been  blessed.  The  gos- 
pel is  a  plain,  simple  narrative,  that  all  men  may  understand. 
It  was  called  foolishness  in  the  days  of  the  apostles.  By 
its  simplicity  many  persons  were  saved.  It  is  said  that  men 
and  women  went  every  where  preaching — all  knew  what 
the  gospel  was,  and  all  felt  at  liberty  to  preach  it.  In  those 
days  there  was  no  money  in  the  gospel.  As  such,  women 
as  well  as  men  felt  at  liberty  to  speak  for  Christ.  But  now, 
the  gospel  is  swollen  with  the  precious  metal;  yes,  its  wealth 
has  added  many  to  its  cause.  The  question  now  is,  who  is 
entitled  to  preach,  and  who  is  entitled  to  receive,  and  how 
much  shall  he  have?  The  gospel  was  committed  to  the  hands 
and  keeping  of  poor  illiterate  fishermen,  by  its  author,  and 
we  have  all  received  it  through  their  instrumentality.  I 
have  frequently  been  disgusted  by  seeing  poor,  honest-heart- 


13 

ed,  illiterate  men  excluded  from  the  rostrum,  for  no  other 
reason  than  the  want  of  an  education.  If  any  one  desire  to 
ispeak,  let  him  speak.  If  he  say  that  God  has  appeared  unto 
him  in  a  vision,  let  him  tell  the  people  all  about  it. 

It  is  surprisingly  strange  to  see  how  the  church  has  de- 
parted from  original  principles.  8he  has  lost  her  love,  and 
her  original  banner  has  been  pulled  down  and  concealed  be- 
neath the  dust  of  gone-by  times.  The  church  is  too  apt  to 
condemn  innocent  amusement.  Is  it  a  sin  for  young  people 
to  attend  a  decent  party?  No!  no!  I  have  been  disgusted 
on  seeing  young  ladies  called  up  in  the  church  to  acknowl- 
edge to  the  church  that  they  were  sorry  for  having  attended 
and  participated  in  the  amusement  of  a  party.  I  contend 
that  the  church  has  no  lawful  right  to  interfere  in  such  cases. 
I  have  seen  an  innocent  young  lady  in  great  trouble  on  being 
denied  the  right  to  attend  an  innocent  party.  Many  are 
depriving  themjselves  of  pleasure  in  this  life,  hoping  to  be 
rewarded  in  the  life  to  come  for  so  doing,  but  this  is  a  great 
mistake.  Let  us  remember  that  heaven  is  in  this  world, 
and  that  the  natural  wants  of  the  people  must  be  supplied, 
in  order  to  enjoy  happiness.  It  is  impossible  for  man  to  be 
happy  deprived  of  eatables,  raiment  and  society.  God  has 
provided  for  all  our  wants,  and  if  we  will  only  use  the  means 
that  he  has  given,  we  shall  be  happy  in  this  life  as  well  as 
in  that  to  come.  0,  what  an  alarming  state  of  suffering 
has  been  caused  by  the  doctrine  that  threatens  to  cast  men 
and  women  into  a  deep  pit  of  fire  and  brimstone,  to  burn 
for  all  eternity.  Many  persons  have  been  threatened  from 
the  stand  by  being  told  that  God  would  cast  them  into 
this  awful  furnace  if  they  did  not  join  the  church.  Many 
grieve  on  account  of  believing  that  their  departed  friends 
and  children  have  been  dragged  out  of  this  world  by  the 
devil,  and  cry  day  and  night  for  water  to  cool  their  tongues. 
Thank  God  our  departed  friends  continue  to  sojourn  in  this 
world.  Yes,  it  is  in  this  world  that  the  wicked  dead  suffer 
for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  and  it  is  in  this  world  that 
the  righteous  dead  enjoy  felicity.  Let  us  rejoice  that  we 
live  in  a  land  surrounded  by  the  spirits  of  the  dead  of  all 
ages.  0,  let  us  rejoice  as  we  approach  the  hour  of  death, 
that  we  shall  soon  be  associated  with  the  spirits  of  those 
who  have  gone  before.  Many  persons  now  in  this  congre- 
gation have  raised  the  dead,  but  you  may  ask  how.  I  an- 
swer, in  dreams  and  visions  of  the  night.  You  cannot  deny 
the  fact  that  you  have  raised  up  the  dead  and  conversed  with 
them  on  various  subjects.  You  cannot  lay  your  hand  on 
your  heart  and  say  that  you  have  not  seen  the  dead  long  af- 


14 

ter  their  death.  And  inasmuch  as  you  have  been  permit- 
ted to  raise  up  others  from  the  shades  of  death,  it  is  likely 
that  when  you  die  some  one  of  the  living  will  call  you  up 
from  your  tomb  in  dreams  and  visions,  and  entertain  you  with 
the  news  of  the  day.  So  you  see  that  you  are  at  home  in 
this  world.  If  you  go  away,  the  living  will  bring  you  back 
in  their  visions.  In  the  days  of  the  prophets  and  apostles 
it  was  common  for  the  dead  to  be  raised  in  this  way.  In 
addition  to  this,  let  us  not  forget  that  the  dead  were  raised 
in  various  other  ways.  The  prodigal  son  was  raised  from  a 
death  of  poverty,  starvation,  sin  and  debauchery.  Said  the 
father  unto  him,  "This,  my  son,  was  dead,  but  now  is  alive." 
The  poor  man  Lazarus  was  raised  from  a  death  of  poverty 
and  affliction,  by  friends,  called  angels  in  the  Scriptures. 

If  you  will  only  read  the  Scriptures  you  will  agree 
with  me,  that  a  large  portion  of  it  is  made  up  with  the 
dreams  and  visions  of  men  ;  that  many  of  the  most  popu- 
lar texts  now  preached  from,  had  their  origin  in  visions. 
Cornelius,  the  centurion,  received  his  first  lesson  on  the  sub- 
ject of  religion  in  a  vision.  Ananias  was  instructed  in  a 
vision  to  go  to  the  house  of  Judas,  to  instruct  Saul.  And 
Saul  was  informed  in  a  vision  that  Ananias  was  coming  to 
see  him,  that  he  was  at  that  time  on  his  way  to  instruct 
him.  Thousands  of  men  and  women  now  living  have  been 
instructed  in  dreams  in  a  singular  way,  that  is,  have  seen 
their  friends  and  relations  in  dreams  coming  to  see  them. 
Only  as  late  as  last  summer,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
Elder  John  L.  Clifton  in  a  dream  coming  to  see  me,  and  in 
less  than  twenty  minutes  after  I  awoke  he  was  at  the  door. 
Now,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  have  more  faith  in  the  dreams 
of  the  men  of  the  Bible  than  I  have  in  this  my  own.  The 
subject  of  dreaming,  says  a  late  writer,  is  unfortunate  in  its 
being  so  much  a  matter  of  vulgar  wonderment,  for  intelligent 
inquirers  are  thereby  repelled  from  it.  When  regarded 
apart  from  all  absurd  marvelling,  it  is  evidently  a  very 
curious  department  of  psychology,  and  one  which  deserves 
careful  investigation.  By  a  proper  collection  of  facts  on  this 
subject,  I  have  no  doubt  that  an  important  advance  might 
be  made  in  the  science  of  mind.  If  the  Bible  is  to  be  the 
test  of  our  faith,  then  we  must  admit  the  fact  that  much  of 
the  testimony  of  the  Bible  on  which  our  faith  is  based  had 
its  origin  in  dreams  and  visions,  and  in  the  beginning  was 
first  related  as  such.  The  question  may  now  be  asked  :  Is 
there  a  reality  in  any  other  dreams  and  visions,  save  those 
seen  and  read  in  the  Bible  ?  I  believe  that  the  art  of  dream- 
ing has  not  been  lost  by  the  human  family.     If  God  con- 


15 

• 

versed  with  men  anciently  in  dreams,  he  does  so  at  this  time, 
and  will  continue  to  do  so  as  long  as  the  human  family  has 
a  heing.  It  will  not  do  to  reject  all  dreams  because  some 
dreams  are  suggested  by  casual  disturbances.  Nor  will  it 
do  to  reject  all  dreams  because  some  dreams  appear  to  be 
made  up  of  foolishness.  Joseph  said  unto  his  brethren  : 
Hear,  I  pray  you,  this  dream  which  I  have  dreamed.  For 
behold,  we  were  binding  sheaves  in  the  field,  and  so  my 
sheaf  arose,  and  also  stood  upright;  and  behold  your  sheaves 
stood  round  about,  and  made  obeisance  to  my  sheaf.  In  this 
dream  it  is  stated  that  Joseph  and  his  brethren  were  bind- 
ing sheaves  in  the  field.  In  what  field  did  this  binding  take 
place?  Was  it  not  in  Joseph's  mind,  and  did  he  not  put 
his  brethren  to  work  in  this  intellectual  field?  And  did 
not  the  sheaves  stand  erect  in  Joseph's  head,  and  not  in  a 
literal  field?  In  this  next  dream  he  makes  the  sun,  moon 
and  eleven  stars  bow  down  before  him.  Now  if  you  take 
this  for  a  reality,  you  will  have  the  high  heavens  in  one 
man's  head.  It  would  be  quite  an  easy  matter  for  a  man 
in  a  dream  to  swallow  an  elephant  or  to  be  swallowed  by 
him.  The  book  of  Revelation  abounds  with  visions  seen  by 
St.  John,  on  the  island  of  Patmos,  many  ages  ago,  but  now 
read  by  thousands  on  the  American  continent  for  realities. 
Have  you  ever  stopped  to  separate  the  dreams  of  the  Bible 
from  its  historical  events  ?  If  you  have  not,  you  will  on 
doing  so  be  surprised  to  find  so  large  a  portion  of  it  dreams 
and  visions.  The  visions  of  St.  John  are  the  most  beautiful 
of  all  visions  found  in  the  sacred  writings.  They  embrace 
almost  the  entire  book  of  Revelation.  Indeed  we  may  say 
that  the  church  has  been  furnished  by  St.  John  with  a 
beautiful  religious  book  of  visions,  which  was  for  a  time 
rejected  by  the  church.  We  find  this  beautiful  vision  in 
Revelation,  22d  chapter :  "And  he  showed  me  a  pure  river 
of  water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out  of  the  throne 
of  God  and  of  the  Lamb.  In  the  midst  of  the  street  of  it, 
and  on  either  side  of  the  river  was  there  the  tree  of  life, 
which  bare  twelve  manner  of  fruits,  and  yieldeth  her  fruit 
every  month,  and  the  leaves  of  the  tree  were  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations."  0,  what  a  lovely  river  was  this  to  the 
dreamer's  eyes?  What  a  difference  in  this  and  Jacob's  dream. 
His  was  full  of  excitement  and  fatigue.  But  this  was  as 
calm  as  a  May  day.  Yes,  it  was  pleasant  to  see  future  bless- 
ings on  their  way  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  people. 

From  what  has  been  said  on  this  subject,  and  from  the 
several  dreams  and  visions  referred  to  ;  can  you  not  say  as  I 
have  said,  that  much  of  the  Bible  is  made  up  of  the  dreams 


16 

t 

of  men  and  women  long  since  dead?  This  view  of  the  suh- 
ject  makes  the  sacred  writings  more  plain,  and  will,  as  I 
think,  meet  with  the  approval  of  all  unprejudiced  minds, 
who  will  examine  the  subject  for  themselves.  I  feel  thank- 
ful that  I  have  lived  to  fill  this  appointment  of  several 
months'  standing,  and  that  you  have  lived  to  meet  with  me 
on  this  occasion.  The  contents  of  this  discourse  have  been 
collected  in  the  midst  of  much  business  of  a  temporal  na- 
ture. I  feel  thankful  to  you,  my  friends,  for  the  attention 
that  you  have  given  me  on  this  occasion. 

"The  discourse  to  you  is  new. 
Yet  you  may  find  it  true.*' 


-.-^ 


^1 


A  DISCOURSE, 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH,  IN  THE  CITY  OF  RALEIGH, 


ON  THE  SECOND  LORD'S  DAY  IN  MAY,  1859, 


BY  J.  PARKS  NEVILL. 


A  DISCOURSE. 


"And  as  it  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  tliis  tlie  judgment." — Heb.  ix  :  27. 


My  Feiends — 

Our  present  state  is  marked  by  many  mighty 
changes.  Have  we  not  already  passed  through  many?  Are 
there  not  many  more  couched  in  the  short  journey  to  the 
land  of  death?  In  the- course  of  events  one  thing  continues 
till  its  work  is  complete,  when  it  expires,  and  from  its  dust 
a  new  order  of  things  begin.  Death  is  one  of  the  fixed 
principles  in  God's  economy  of  creation.  Man  is  no  more 
the  author  of  natural  death,  than  of  life.  God,  his  creator, 
is  the  author  of  both.  Yet  man  has  often  abused  both. 
Adam  and  Eve  were  made  to  die,  as  well  as  to  live.  Their 
bodies  returned  to  the  dust,  not  for  any  thing  they  said  or 
did,  but  to  fulfill  the  law  of  God.  It  was  not  in  their  power 
to  live  forever.  It  is  just  as  much  in  your  power  to  live  for- 
ever as  it  was  in  the  power  of  your  father  Adam.  The  pos- 
terity of  Adam  and  Eve  do  not  die  on  the  account  of  any 
defect  in  their  conduct,  but  because  they  were  born  to  die. 
Natural  death  is  just  as  necessary  in  the  world  as  life — it  is 
your  friend  and  conductor  to  spiritual  enjoyments.  When 
he  comes  for  you  do  not  be  alarmed,  but  gladly  go  with  him, 
as  did  Simeon.  It  is  only  man's  short-sightedness  that 
causes  him  to  shun  his  friend — natural  death.  It  is  an  un- 
timely death  that  we  should  strive  to  avoid.  It  is  probable 
that  every  natural  death  is  to  some  extent  succeeded  by  bet- 
ter circumstances.  Had  none  died,  what  an  innumerable 
multitude  of  old,  infirm  persons  would  be  tottering  around 
every  hearth  this  morning.  God,  foreseeing  the  future,  has 
in  his  wisdom  provided  better  things  for  us.  He  has  given 
each  of  his  children  a  home  beneath  the  green  sod,  as  well 
as  abore  it.     The  one  in  its  proper  time  is  just  as  important 


4 

as  the  other.     Our  ancestors  had  but  little  dread  of  death, 
therefore  many  of  them  lived  for  hundreds  of  years. 

The  resurrection  of  the  dead  commenced  with  death,  that 
is,  the  first  that  died  was  the  first  to  rise  from  the  dead.  If 
Abel  be  the  first  that  died,  then  he  was  the  first  that  rose 
from  the  dead.  His  death  was  a  violation  of  the  law  of  God, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  killed  bv  the  hands  of  Cain.  His  resur- 
rection,  however,  was  in  accordance  to  the  law  of  the  resur- 
rection ;  that  is  to  say,  man  shall  rise  from  the  dead  when 
he  dies,  without  regard  to  the  cause  of  his  death.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  nature  of  death  that  can  hinder  man  from 
rising  at  the  time  of  death.  Therefore  we  believe  that  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  takes  place  at  the  hour  of  death. 
When  Adam  and  Eve  died,  their  spirits  rose  up  out  of  their 
dead  bodies,  and  so  with  all  others.  Therefore,  the  body  is 
not  the  subject  of  the  resurrection.  The  dead  body  is  the 
grave,  so  to  speak,  out  of  which  the  spirit  rises.  We  pre- 
sume that  it  will  be  admitted  by  all  professors  of  religion 
that  no  spirit  has  ever  risen  up  out  of  a  dead  body  in  the 
grave;  that  the  union  of  the  body  and  spirit  is  dissolved  in 
the  moment  of  death,  and  not  in  the  dark  grave.  The  ques- 
tion then  with  me  is,  Is  this  union  dissolved  forever,  or  is 
it  for  a  limited  time?     We  believe  that  it  is  forever. 

The  five  thousand  years  that  this  dissolution  has  contin- 
ued, -with  Adam,  Eve,  Abel  and  others,  go  to  prove  that  it 
is  forever.  The  fact  that  all  human  bodies  are  now  mortal, 
and  have  ever  been.  We  naturally  infer  that  such  was  the 
case  with  Adam  in  his  original  state. 

Thousands  of  good  people  believe,  as  they  tell  us,  that 
man  made  himself  mortal.  Now  if  he  possessed  the  power 
to  change  immortality  into  mortality,  then  on  the  same 
principle  he  could  change  mortality  into  immortality.  If 
man  were  made  immortal,  and  has  by  sin  made  himself 
mortal,  then  we  may  say  that  he  has  frustrated  the  design 
of  God  in  creating  man.  There  was  mortality  in  the  world 
before  man  violated  the  commandment.  The  birds  and 
beasts  of  the  field  were  made  subject  to  death  ;  therefore, 
they  would  have  died  had  man  never  sinned.  The  snake 
was  as  poisonous  before  man  apostatized  as  after.  His  sin 
had  nothing  to  do  in  the  way  of  changing  the  nature  of 
snakes  or  animals. 

It  is  believed  by  numbers  of  christian  people,  that  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  are  doomed  to  destruction,  because 
man  violated  the  commandment  of  God.  But  this  idea  is 
objectionable,  since  they  were  made,  and  laws  given  for 
their  regularity  and  durability,  and  that  too  before  m»n  was 


created.  Now,  if  they  are  to  "be  annihilated  through  a  sin- 
ful act  on  the  part  of  man,  then  it  will  appear  that  he  has 
frustrated  God  in  all  his  works.  It  is  absurd  to  say  that 
God  will  destroy  all  things  just  hecause  Adam  and  Eve  vio- 
lated a  commandment  concerning  the  fruit  of  a  certain  tree 
that  stood  in  their  garden. 

A  child  may  he  taught  to  kill,  plunder  and  steal,  believ- 
ing it  to  be  a  part  of  its  duty  to  do  so.  And  it  is  from  this 
principle  that  men  appear  to  rejoice  in  war  and  bloodshed. 
Many  of  the  evils  that  now  exist  in  our  country  can  be 
traced  back  and  fixed  on  men  long  since  dead.  The  deeds 
that  men  do  live  a  long  time  with  posterity.  False  doctrine 
may  in  the  course  of  ages  become  so  popular  as  to  deter  men 
from  investigating  it.  It  is  from  this  principle  that  spuri- 
ous tenets  have  quietly  descended  from  age  to  age. 

We  sometimes  see  imperfections  in  the  deeds  of  some  of 
the  prominent  men  of  the  Bible,  but  are  deterred  by  the 
popular  opinion  of  them  from  pointing  out  those  imperfec- 
tions. Who  is  so  blind  as  not  to  see  imperfections  in  Da- 
vid ?  Was  the  square  before  his  eyes  when  he  commanded 
Uriah  to  be  placed  in  the  front  of  the  battle?  David  was 
not  perfect  in  all  things.  Who  can  approve  of  all  he  has 
said  in  the  109th  Psalm? — "Let  his  children  be  fatherless, 
and  his  wife  a  widow.  Let  his  children  be  continually  vag- 
abonds, and  beg;  let  them  seek  their  bread  also  out  of  their 
desolate  places.  Let  the  extortioner  catch  all  that  he  hath_, 
and  let  the  stranger  spoil  his  labor.  Let  there  be  none  to 
extend  mercy  unto  him  ;  neither  let  there  be  any  to  favor 
his  fatherless  children."  Here  is  an  instance  of  a  great 
man  under  the  influence  of  a  bad  spirit. 

Laws  have  frequently  been  enacted  to  deter  religious  man 
from  expressing  himself  on  certain  points  of  doctrine.  We 
find  in  the  Blue  Laws  of  Connecticut  the  following  on  reli- 
gious restrictions: 

1.  No  one  shall  be  a  freeman  or  give  a  vote,  unless  he  be 
a  member  in  full  communion  with  one  of  the  churches  in 
this  dominion. 

2.  No  one  shall  hold  an  office  who  is  not  sound  in  faith, 
and  faithful  to  his  denomination;  and  whoever  gives  a  vote 
for  such  a  person  shall  pay  a  fine  of  £20  for  the  first  offence, 
and  for  the  second  shall  be  disfranchised. 

3.  Each  freeman  shall  swear  by  the  blessed  God  to  bear 
true  alliance  to  this  dominion,  and  that  Jesus  is  the  only 
king. 

4.  No  lodging  or  food  shall  be  offered  to  a  Quaker,  Adam- 
ite, or  any  other  heretic. 


6 

5.  If  any  person  turns  Quaker,  lie  shall  be  banished,  and 
suffer  death  on  his  return. 

6.  No  priest  shall  abide  in  the  dominion.  He  shall  be 
banished,  and  suffer  death  on  his  return. 

It  has  been  through  such  channels  that  original  Chris- 
tianity has  been  corrupted. 

The  dead  body  is  not  the  subject  of  future  punishment,  nor 
of  future  happiness.  As  a  body,  its  pleasures  and  sorrows 
cease  in  death.  No  approaching  event  can  molest  the  sleeper 
in  the  grave.  In  the  grave  are  no  distinctions.  "There  the 
"wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  there  the  weary  be  at  rest. 
There  the  prisoners  rest  together;  they  hear  not  the  voice  of 
the  oppressor.  The  small  and  great  are  there,  and  the  ser- 
vant is  free  from  his  master." — Job,  iii:  1*7.  Death  in  Job's 
eye  was  the  final  end  of  oppression,  servitude  and  fatigue, 
with  all  dead  bodies.  Speaking  of  himself  he  said,  "When 
a  few  years  are  come,  then  I  shall  go  the  way  whence  I 
shall  not  return." — Job,  xvi:  22.  Thousands  of  years  have 
passed  away  since  his  death,  nor  has  he  yet  returned.  Job, 
thou  hast  gone  to  thy  grave,  not  to  return !  Nor  would  thy 
spirit  desire  to  be  again  re-united  to  thy  tranquil  dust. 

Immortality  cannot  die,  therefore  nothing  that  has  died 
was  immortal.  A  person  once  in  possession  of  immortality 
will  always  be, — can  never  lose  it.  Immortality,  however^ 
can  be  dispossessed  of  mortality.  The  spirit  of  Adam  was 
put  in  possession  of  his  body,  and  not  his  body  in  possession 
of  his  spirit.  Therefore  his  body  was  inferior  to  his  spirit. 
Now  if  the  dead  body  is  to  be  raised  immortal  and  equal  to 
the  spirit,  then  the  one  cannot  possess  the  other,  inasmuch 
as  the  possessor  must  be  superior  to  the  thing  possessed. 
The  spirit  is  the  subject  of  the  future  judgment.  The  body 
will  be  in  the  dust  at  the  time  of  this  judgment.  In  life 
there  is  a  judgment  constantly  going  on,  whicli  is  the  only 
one  that  can  effect  it.  There  is  nothing  in  the  grave  that 
"now  suffers,  or  will  ever  suffer.  The  dead  family  have 
cea.sed  from  bodily  suffering.  It  is  that  sensitive  thing,  the 
spirit,  that  suffers  after  death.  Indeed  it  is  often  a  contin- 
uation of  punishment  commenced  in  the  lifetime  of  the  body. 
Now,  if  the  judgment  do  commence  in  the  lifetime  of  a  sin- 
ner, and  it  is  possible  for  him  to  reform  and  to  obtain  for- 
giveness before  death,  is  it  impossible  for  his  spirit  to  be 
saved  if  he  fail  to  repent  in  life?  Is  the  spirit's  future  hap- 
piness suspended  on  the  nature  of  death?  Is  it  altogether 
imi)Ossible  for  a  spirit  to  reform?  Must  it  always  continue 
wicked  and  miserable  because  death  has  separated  it  from 
its  body  ?     It  is  often  the  case  that  ministers  hold  out  in- 


ducements  to  men  ia  the  hour  of  death,  by  exhorting  them 
to  look  unto  God  that  their  spirits  may  be  saved.  Now,  if 
a  merciful  God  can  save  a  spirit  from  eternal  woe  when  the 
body  is  in  a  state  of  death,  and  that  too  after  the  legs  or 
arms  have  been  amputated,  why  suppose  it  impossible  for 
the  same  mercy  to  be  extended  to  the  spirit  after  the  death 
of  the  remaining  part  of  the  body?  If  a  spirit  can  be  saved 
when  in  the  act  of  leaving  the  body,  and  that  too  without 
baptism,  or  without  membership  in  the  church,  why  can  it 
not  be  saved  in  the  spirit  land  ? 

Many  young  persons  die  soon  after  arriving  to  the  years 
of  accountability.  Now,  let  us  suppose  that  fifty  such  young 
persons  are  passing  on  the  railroad  to  attend  a  religious 
meeting,  and  are  thrown  from  the  cars  and  killed  ;  do  you 
think  that  a  God  of  love  and  mercy  would  cast  them  into  a 
lake  of  fire  and  brimstone  forever,  without  giving  their  spi- 
rits an  opportunity  of  becoming  happy  ?— seeing  that  their 
days  were  few  in  life?  Again,  let  us  suppose  that  a  young 
man  finds  a  difficulty  in  deciding  which  is  the  church  of 
God,  out  of  the  hundreds  professing  to  be^  and  in  this  con- 
dition is  killed  by  lightning,  do  you  believe  that  God  would 
punish  his  spirit  for  millions  of  years  in  flames  of  fire,  for 
not  obeying  the  gospel  in  confusion?  Children  who  die  in 
infancy  are  made  happy  in  the  spirit  state  without  the  gos- 
pel. Their  spirits  grow  in  knowledge  and  happiness.  They 
are  not  in  their  bodies,  but  out  of  them,  therefore  their 
deeds  are  spiritual,  as  well  as  their  lives.  Great,  indeed, 
must  be  the  progress  that  infant  spirits  have  made  in  the 
spirit  state,  since  many  of  them  have  been  students  in  the 
spiritual  school  for  thousands  of  years.  We  believe  that 
the  infant  spirit  is  progressive  before  and  after  death  ;  nor 
are  their  spirits  judged  after  the  death  of  their  bodies. — 
Why  judge  an  innocent  child,  that  knew  no  evil,  that  left 
its  mother  as  innocent  as  the  sweetest  flower  that  fades?. 
Many  ministers  have  disgraced  the  pulpit,  and  made  them- 
selves contemptible,  by  preaching  children  down  to  hell. 
Although  this  infant  damnation  or  condemnation  was 
preached  in  the  past,  it  is  now  generally  repudiated. — 
Time  will  continue  to  throw  new  light  on  the  doctrine  of 
the  church.  Positions  of  long  standing,  advocated  by  great 
and  popular  men,  will  meet  with  opposition  in  coming  ages, 
out  of  which  the  world  of  mankind  may  be  benefitted.  We 
have  lived  to  realize  much  pleasure  in  our  efibrt  to  sift  sec- 
tarianism. Who  believes  that  any  one  of  the  difi'erent  re- 
ligious denominations  is  correct  in  all  its  doctrines  ?  All 
have  truth  mingled  with  error. 


a 

The  idea  that  all  punishment  after  death  is  to  continue 
forever,  without  increasing  or  diminishing,  is  objection  able. 
Why  is  the  punishment  in  life  more  severe  at  one  time  than 
at  another,  and  the  punishment  after  death  always  the  same, 
without  the  least  mitigation  ?  The  sorrow  of  a  wicked  spi- 
rit after  death  is  fluctuating  to  some  extent — its  grief  may 
be  greater  to-day  than  it  will  be  to-morrow.  The  circum- 
stances with  which  a  departed  spirit  have  to  contend,  may 
have  something  to  do  in  the  way  of  increasing  and  dimin- 
ishing sorrows.  In  this  respect  there  is  a  striking  resem- 
blance between  the  present  and  future  state.  In  the  present 
it  causes  remorse  to  see  those  persons  we  have  unjustly  per- 
secuted ;  how  much  more  so  when  we  shall  meet  with  them 
in  the  land  of  spirits?  The  changes  that  the  nations  of  the 
earth  have  passed  through,  have,  in  all  probability,  effected 
wonderful  changes  with  many  of  the  spiritual  family.  The 
death  of  one  individual  sometimes  effects  the  condition  of  a 
spirit  long  separated  from  its  own  body  by  death.  A  refor- 
mation in  the  morals  of  a  man  may,  under  some  circum- 
stances, effect  the  condition  of  a  departed  spirit.  It  is  also 
probable  that  the  spirits  of  some  dead  persons  possess  the 
power  to  effect  the  happiness  of  living  persons.  In  Matt, 
xii:  43,  we  have  this  singular  case — "When  the  unclean 
spirit  is  gone  out  of  a  man,  he  walketh  through  dry  places, 
seeking  rest,  and  findeth  none.  Then  he  saith,  I  will  re- 
turn into  my  house  from  whence  I  came  out ;  and  when  he 
is  come,  he  findeth  it  empty,  swept  and  garnished.  Then 
he  goeth  and  taketh  with  himself  seven  other  spirits  more 
wicked  than  himself,  and  they  enter  in  and  dwell  there,  and 
the  last  state  of  that  man  is  worse  than  the  first.  Even  so 
shall  it  be  also  unto  this  wicked  generation."  We  have  in 
this  case  an  instance  of  a  wicked  spirit  seeking  rest  after 
the  death  of  its  body.  We  also  have  proof  that  it,  in  com- 
pany with  others,  entered  into  a  living  person  and  dwelt 
there.  Those  spirits  could  have  been  dispossessed  of  their 
home  in  this  man  in  several  ways — 1.  They  could  have  been 
cast  out  by  Jesus,  or  by  the  apostles.  2.  The  man  could 
have  dispossessed  them  by  reforming  his  life.  3.  They  were 
dispossessed  forever  at  the  time  of  the  man's  death,  if  in  no 
other  way. 

Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  the  spirits  of  dead  persons 
were  numerous  at  different  places  on  the  earth.  Why  sup- 
pose that  such  is  not  the  case  at  this  time  ?  If  they  have 
been  banished,  we  would  be  pleased  to  know  the  cause — to 
see  the  law  that  condemned  them  to  banishment.  If  those 
wicked  spirits  were  here  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  then 


9 

liell  was  on  eartli  at  that  time.  If,  however,  there  were  no 
hell  on  earth  at  that  time,  then  those  wicked  spirits  were 
going  at  large,  unrestrained  and  unpunished.  The  religious 
world  to  a  great  extent  oppose  the  idea  of  the  transmigra- 
tion of  the  spirit  from  one  body  to  another.  But  notwith- 
standing, they  teach  about  the  same.  Say  they,  the  spirits 
of  the  dead  will  be  sent  back  into  their  same  bodies  in  the 
resurrection.  Would  not  this  be  transmigration,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  said  that  their  bodies  are  to  be  new  ones.  Thc'idea 
advanced  by  the  churches  of  this  age  is,  that  Adam  will 
rise  up  from  the  dust,  and  his  spirit  will  come  down  from 
heaven  and  enter  into  his  body,  and  dwell  in  it  forever,  and 
so  with  all  his  godly  posterity.  As  to  the  wicked,  they  say 
that  their  spirits  will  come  up  out  of  hell  fire  and  enter  into 
their  bodies  as  they  rise  from  the  grave. 

Then  these  extremes  of  heat  and  cold 
Will  stand  before  the  Judge's  throne. 

Although  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls  is 
now  denied  by  the  church,  it  is  older  than  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  was  taught  in  Asia  long  before  the  advent  of  the 
Messiah.  The  Jewish  Eabbins  have  believed  in  the  trans- 
migration of  souls  from  the  very  remotest  antiquity,  and 
many  of  the  Jewish  doctors,  as  wise  as  our  American  D.  Ds., 
have  believed  that  the  souls  of  Adam,  Abraham  and  Phine- 
has,  have  successively  animated  the  great  men  of  their  na- 
tion. We  may  suppose  that  the  believers  of  this  doctrine 
were  as  honest,  and  enjoyed  themselves  as  well  as  thousands, 
of  professors  of  religion  at  this  time. 

It  is  argued  by  some,  that  the  doctrine  of  transmigration, 
is  false,  from  the  fact  that  there  are  more  spirits  than  hu- 
man bodies.  But  even  this  would  not  prove  the  doctrine 
false,  from  the  fact  that  many  spirits  have  animated  the 
same  body  at  the  same  time.  Mary  entertained  seven,  and 
a  certain  man  accommodated  eight.  In  addition  to  this,  it 
will  be  seen  from  an  examination  of  the  New  Testament, 
that  spirits  lived  separate  and  independent  of  a  human  body. 
A  spirit  having  once  animated  a  living  body,  claimed  it  as 
his — called  it  his  home.  Such  was  the  case  with  the  un- 
clean spirit  already  referred  to.  The  restlessness  of  those 
wicked  spirits  after  the  death  of  their  bodies  is  proof  that 
they  had  been  judged  and  condemned,  and  that  their  place 
of  suffering  was  in  this  world.  Why  send  a  spirit  to  some 
distant  world  to  be  judged  and  punished  ?  Why  not  judge 
it  in  the  land  of  its  crimes,  and  if  guilty,  punish  it  there  ? 
2 


10 

In  some  cases,  it  is  probable  that  punishment  will  be  for  a 
terra  of  years,  and  not  for  all  eternity.  We  cannot  suppose 
that  a  just  and  merciful  God  will  punish  a  man  of  few  sins 
as  long  as  one  of  many.  It  is  said  by  those  who  teach  ever- 
lasting punishment  in  all  cases,  that  it  is  measured  by  de- 
grees, not  by  time.  Now,  if  this  idea  be  correct,  then  we 
may  say  that  there  is  but  little  difi'erence  between  some  in 
hell  and  in  heaven.  The  objection  to  measuring  by  years 
appears  to  be  this.  It  will  not  do  to  let  a  parched  and  smoked 
spirit  come  out  of  hell  into  heaven.  It  is  said,  that  great 
men  are  not  always  wise,  and  we  would  add,  not  always 
merciful.  With  many,  a  moment's  repentance  saves  the 
soul  from  punishment  for  all  eternity.  But  a  million  of 
years  with  them,  are  not  sufficient  to  punish  the  soul  for 
failing  to  repent  in  that  moment.     In  the  present  they  say, 

"And  while  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn. 
The  vilest  sinner  may  return." 

But  in  the  future  they  say, 

And  while  the  brimstone  holds  out  to  burn. 
The  least  sinner  cannot  return. 

We  cannot  believe  that  such  doctrine  emanated  from  that 
God  of  love  and  mercy.  The  time  is  coming  when  the  reli- 
gious world  will  be  driven  to  the  necessity  of  changing  her 
position  of  future  punishment,  as  she  has  already  done  on 
other  subjects.  I  am  a  strong  believer  in  a  future  punish- 
ment. I  believe  that  the  spirit  is  judged  immediately  after 
the  death  of  its  body,  and  that  all  of  that  punishment  is 
measured  by  time,  and  that  its  length  of  time  is  determined 
by  the  nature  of  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  Wicked  men 
often  experience  in  life,  and  particularly  in  dreams,  a  fore- 
taste of  that  suffering  that  will  be  endured  by  the  spirit 
when  the  body  is  asleep  in  the  grave.  You  remember  how 
miserable  you  were — how  your  spirit  was  excited — when 
you  were  running  in  your  dream  from  the  pursuer.  You 
remember  how  miserable  you  felt  when  detected  and  exposed 
to  the  eyes  of  many  persons — how  miserable  you  felt  on  see- 
ing those  you  had  injured.  Such  maybe  a  partial  represen- 
tation of  that  state  of  suffering  after  death.  The  suffering 
of  a  spirit  in  the  future  state  will  be  owing  to  a  combination 
of  wicked  crimes — the  linking  in  one  chain  all  of  the  evil 
of  a  long  and  wicked  life.  Crimes  long  concealed  will  con- 
stitute a  part  of  this  sinful  chain.     The  spirit  will  be  con- 


11 

strained  after  death  to  review  the  deeds  of  life,  which  will 
constitute  a  part  of  its  sorrow.  The  features  of  the  mur- 
dered person  will  he  seen  just  as  they  were  when  killed. 
The  voice  that  cried  for  life  will  be  heard  again. — Not  by 
the  innocent,  but  by  the  perpetrator.  Those  objects  were 
in  the  first  instance  realities,  but  after  their  destruction, 
they  were  often  the  impressions  made  on  the  mind  of  the 
perpetrator,  tormenting  him  in  life ;  and  such  will  be  the 
ease  with  the  spirit  after  the  death  of  the  body.  In  the 
spirit  state,  ten  thousand  painful  reflections  may  grow  out 
of  reviewing  one  isolated  crime.  In  reviewing  cases  in  the 
spirit  state,  the  grief  is  in  proportion  to  the  nature  of  the 
case.  All  sins  reviewed  do  not  cause  the  same  amount  of 
remorse;  therefore  a  spirit  may  be  in  more  pain  to-day  than 
it  will  be  to-morrow.  If  we  knew  the  case  that  a  departed 
spirit  was  now  engaged  in  reviewing,  we  could  form  a  pret- 
ty correct  opinion  of  its  condition,  having  been  acquainted 
with  the  character  of  the  case,  as  well  as  with  the  person  in 
his  life-time.  We  may  suppose  that  punishment  in  the  fu- 
ture state,  in  some  cases,  is  alleviated  from  the  fact  of  its 
having  commenced  in  the  lifetime  of  the  person,  and  that 
too  in  his  youthful  days.  Is  there  not  a  difference  in  the 
punishment  of  one  who  commits  murder  in  his  youth,  and 
is  punished  by  the  law,  and  one  who  commits  the  same  of- 
fence in  his  old  age,  and  dies  unpunished  by  the  law?  Do 
you  suppose  that  two  such  persons  would  occupy  precisely 
the  same  position  after  death? 

It  is  generally  believed  that  all  men  will  stand  before  Grod 
to  be  judged  on  the  same  day,  which  is  called  the  judgment 
day,  some  say  the  great  day  of  accounts.  What  is  meant 
by  the  judgment  day  after  death,  is  nothing  more  than  a  se- 
ries of  events  resulting  in  the  condemnation  of  evil-doers. 
God  has  placed  within  each  human  breast  a  monitor,  and 
whenever  man  runs  counter  to  it  he  is  certain  to  be  rebuked. 
Such  was  the  fact  in  the  case  of  Cain,  the  eldest  son  of  Adam 
and  Eve.  It  was  not  a  written  law  that  caused  him  to  be 
a  fugitive  and  a  vagabond,  but  the  law  of  his  nature  vio- 
lated. His  punishment  was  caused  by  running  contrary  to 
the  monitor  within  his  bosom.  If  men  would  only  observe 
the  workings  of  this  monitor,  they  would  save  themselves 
from  much  sorrow  in  life,  and  would  be  much  better  off  in 
the  spirit  state.  Many  have  been  judged,  and  are  this  day 
suffering  their  punishment,  without  having  ever  seen  God: 
therefore,  we  conclude,  that  no  one  will  see  him  in  the  fu- 
ture judgment.  The  place  of  judgment  is  in  this  lower 
world,  and  it  is  here  that  the  guilty  will  be  punished  and 


12 

the  just  rewarded.  Such  have  already  taken  place  with  all 
the  dead.  Judgino;  from  the  number  which  die  each  day, 
we  may  say  that  the  judgment  is  daily,  Sundays  not  ex- 
cepted. Some  spirits  will  enter  into  heaven  to-day,  while 
others  are  entering  into  hell. 

Josephus,  the  Jewish  historian,  tells  us,  that  hell  is  a 
place  in  the  world  not  regularly  finished — a  subterraneous 
region,  in  which  the  light  of  this  world  does  not  shine. 

After  all  that  has  been  said  in  the  way  of  locating  hell, 
we  will  add,  that  it  is  in  all  places  where  men  do  wrong. 
There  is,  a  hell-fire  burning  to-day  in  many  hearts.  We 
would  recommend  sobriety,  industry  and  economy,  as  some 
of  the  means  of  preventing  men  from  falling  into  hell.  We 
often  see  men  at  one  time  prosperous  and  happy;  at  another 
time  we  see  them  unprosperous  and  unhappy.  Such  changes 
are  often  the  results  of  bad  economy.  If  all  men  were  well 
provided  for,  and  the  evils  that  corrupt  the  morals  of  society 
and  destroy  the  livings  of  men  were  better  regulated,  there 
would  be  much  more  enjoyment  in  the  community  and  less 
vice.  Millions  of  dollars  are  yearly  thrown  away  in  erect- 
ing costly  monuments  over  the  graves  of  dead  men.  Is  this 
good  christian  economy?  Are  not  the  poor  and  needy  more 
justly  entitled  to  it?  Give  me  the  money  that  is  extrava- 
gantly spent  in  the  grave  yard,  and  I  will  provide  for  the 
wants  of  all  the  jjoor  and  needy  in  this  world.  A  plain 
slab  is  sufficient  for  the  grave  of  any  one,  and  christians 
should  not  encourage  anything  beyond  it.  Let  us  give  to 
the  living.  Let  our  ears  ever  be  open  to  the  cry  of  the  poor 
and  needy.  Let  us  be  economical  For  their  sakes.  Let  it  be 
a  part  of  our  doctrine  to  do  all  we  can  for  those  in  distress. 
Such  appears  to  have  been  the  desire  of  the  Samaritan  doc- 
tor in  dressing  the  wounds  of  the  unfortunate  man  Avho  had 
been  left  half  dead,  and  whose  situation  foiled  to  attract  the 
attention  and  aid  of  a  certain  priest  and  Levite.  It  is  said 
that  this  man  was  half  dead.  Suppose  the  translators  had, 
through  mistake^  left  out  the  word  half  What  a  wonder- 
ful man  would  this  omission  have  made  the  Samaritan ! 
And  had  the  omission  been  made,  how  few  would  have 
known  it ! 

It  is  admitted  by  thousands  that  the  common  version  is 
imperfect  and  erroneous.  Thus  have  the  leading  men  in 
almost  all  of  the  denominations  been  driven  to  the  necessity 
of  making  alterations  in  the  Scriptures.  One  man,  John 
Mills,  collected  no  less  than  thirty  thousand  different  read- 
ings, that  is,  he  marked  thirty  thousand  different  places  in 
which  those   manuscripts  varied   from   each  other.     John 


13 

Wesley  made  a  new  translation  for  his  denomination.  Dr. 
Boothiioyd  of  the  Congregational  church,  England,  made 
another  translation  for  his  denomination.  Dr.  Conquest,  a 
layman  of  the  same  denomination,  made  a  translation,  in 
■which  he  states  that  he  had  made  twenty  thousand  emenda- 
tions, English  Unitarians  have  published  a  number  of  new 
versions  of  the  New  Testament.  There  is  now  being  made 
in  America,  if  not  completed,  a  new  translation  of  the  en- 
tire Bible.  Episcopalians,  Congregationalists,  Baptists, 
Methodists  and  Disciples,  all  contend,  and  by  their  actions 
prove,  that  they  believe  that  the  common  version  of  the 
Scriptures  is  not  correct.  Therefore,  it  is  not  likely  that 
the  common  version  is  correct  on  the  resurrection,  and  in- 
correct on  thousands  of  other  subjects.  But  the  question 
may  be  asked,  Are  those  men  competent  to  correct  the  er- 
rors of  the  Bible?  Are  they  not  as  liable  to  err  as  those 
translators  were  who  have  preceded  them?  If  they  should 
err,  will  the  people  know  it?  Who  shall  correct  their 
translation?  And  has  God  commanded  them  to  do  this 
thing?  Living  in  an  age  of  confusion,  error  and  prejudice, 
it  behooves  all  persons  to  be  directed  by  the  powers  of  intel- 
lect and  conscience.  If  we  cannot  read  and  interpret  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  ;  if  we  cannot  comprehend  all  that  is 
written  in  Greek  and  Hebrew,  or  in  the  English,  Spanish, 
Latin,  French  and  German  translations  ;  we  have  nature's 
book,  seen  and  read  by  King  David  ages  before  the  origin 
of  those  translations. — "  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork.  Day 
unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto  night  showeth 
knowledge." 

Death  has  long  been  set  forth  under  false  colors,  causing 
much  unnecessary  excitement  and  injury  to  mankind.  It  is 
often  called  the  "grim  monster,"  the  "frightful  king  of  ter- 
rors," the  "universal  foe  of  mankind,"  &c.,  &c. 

Why  should  we  start  and  fear  to  die  ? 

What  tim'rous  worms  we  mortals  are  ! 
Death  is  the  gate  of  endless  joy ; 

And  yet  we  dread  to  enter  there. 

There  is  evidently  too  much  excitement  connected  with 
the  subject  of  religion  and  death,  for  longevity  and  happi- 
ness. Many  of  the  religious  excitements  of  this  age  are 
caused  by  the  fear  of  death  depicted  in  the  sacred  stand. 
The  big  tears  generally  start  on  hearing  the  obituary  part 
of  a  discourse,  descriptive  of  father's  mother's  or  some  fond 


.  14 

lover's  exit.  It  is  the  relating  of  death-bed  scenes  in  ser- 
mons, that  influence  multitudes  to  join  the  church.  It  is 
not  uncommon  to  hear  from  five  to  ten  in  one  discourse. 
The  gospel  in  former  times  was  glad  tidings.  The  people 
then  went  to  cliurch  to  rejoice,  but  now  they  are  expected  to 
cry  and  lament  like  those  in  distress.  It  is  high  time  that 
something  should  be  done  to  correct  this  injurious  custom  in 
church.  We  abridge  life  by  our  imprudence.  We  go  to  the 
grave  too  soon.  But  few  die  a  natural  death.  The  fear  of 
disease  is  often  more  injurious  than  the  disease  itself  Never 
suffer  yourself  to  be  alarmed  by  the  approacli  of  disease  and 
death.  A  strong  resolution  is  frequently  worth  more  than 
a  strong  dose  of  medicine.  The  present  age  is  living  too 
fast  to  last  long. 

We  have  said  that  the  dead  body  is  not  the  subject  of 
the  resurrection.  Christians  often  refer  to  the  case  of  Euty- 
chus  to  prove  that  St.  Paul  restored  a  dead  body  to  life. 
Acts  XX :  9 — "^And  there  sat  in  a  window  a  young  man 
named  Eutychus,  being  fallen  into  a  deep  sleep.  ifVnd  as 
Paul  was  long  preaching,  he  sunk  down  with  sleep,  and  fell 
from  the  third  loft,  and  was  taken  up  dead.  And  Paul 
went  down  and  fell  on  him  and  said.  Trouble  not  yourself, 
for  his  life  is  in  him."  Now,  if  his  life  was  in  him,  it  was 
not  out  of  him.  The  writer  has  given  us  the  report  that 
was  first  made  of  his  death  by  those  who  took  him  up,  al- 
though they  were  mistaken  ;  and  after  this  he  gives  us  the 
testimony  of  Paul,  who  said  he  was  not  dead.  Just  such 
dead  men  as  Eutychus  have  been  restored  to  life  in  all  ages. 
Eutychus  was  not  dead;  therefore  it  is  wrong  for  any  one  to 
say  he  was — to  give  Paul  credit  for  something  he  did  not 
do. 

The  Damsel — Mark  v  :  35.  "  While  he  yet  spake,  there 
came  from  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue's  house  certain  which 
said,  Thy  daughter  is  dead  ;  why  troublest  thou  the  Master 
any  further?  As  soon  as  Jesus  heard  the  word  that  was 
spoken,  he  said  unto  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue,  Be  not 
afraid  ;  only  believe.  And  he  suffered  no  man  to  follow 
him  save  Peter,  John  and  James.  And  he  cometh  to  the 
house  of  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue,  and  sceth  the  tumult, 
and  them  that  wept  and  wailed  greatly.  And  when  he  was 
come  in  he  said  unto  them,  Why  make  ye  this  ado,  and 
weep!  The  damsel  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth."  The  death 
of  the  damsel  was  first  reported  by  a  messenger  from  the 
father's  house  ;  but  Jesus,  on  his  arrival  at  the  house,  cor- 
rected the  mistake. — "She  is  not  dead."  In  Matthew  it  is 
written,  "Mv  daughter  is  even  now  dead."     In  Mark  it  is 


15 

written,  "  My  little  daughter  lietli  at  the  point  of  death." 
And  in  Luke  it  is  said,  "She  lay  a  dying."  It  is  one  thing 
to  believe  the  testimony  of  messengers,  but  another  thing  to 
believe  the  words  of  Jesus,  whom  we  introduce  to  prove  that 
the  damsel  was  not  dead.  It  is  not  generally  known,  that 
an  effort  was  being  made  to  restore  the  damsel  at  the  time 
Jesus  arrived.  The  minstrels  were  offended  at  Jesus  for 
saying  "she  is  not  dead."  They  laughed  him  to  scorn.  It 
was  a  custom  in  those  days,  with  the  Greek,  to  make  a  great 
noise  on  funeral  occasions,  with  brazen  vessels;  and  the  Ro- 
mans made  a  great  outcry,  called  conclamatio,  hoping  either 
to  stop  the  soul  which  was  now  taking  its  flight,  or  to  awake 
the  person  if  only  in  a  state  of  torpor.  Customs  of  such 
universal  use — of  such  long  standing,  must  have  been  at- 
tended with  some  little  success.  Therefore,  persons  said  to 
be  dead  were  restored  to  life  by  those  customs  before  the  ad- 
vent of  Jesus  Christ.  Therefore,  we  believe  that  Jesus 
made  an  important  improvement  in  those  ancient  customs. 
It  is  a  fact  that  persons  are  frequently  interred  alive  through 
mistake,  in  this  enlightened  age ;  how  much  more  so  in 
those  countries  where  men  knew  but  little  of  the  human 
system — perhaps  never  felt  the  pulse,  nor  knew  but  little  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood.  The  law  of  Moses  in  certain 
cases  prohibited  persons  from  touching  the  dead  body. 

There  now  lives  in  this  state  a  colored  woman  who  drop- 
ped down  and  was  declared  to  be  dead.  A  grave  was  or- 
dered to  be  dug  for  her.  Fortunately  it  was  ascertained 
that  she  was  not  dead,  just  in  time  to  escape  from  being  in- 
terred alive.  Was  she  not  just  such  as  the  apostles  raised 
to  life  ?  It  is  a  fact  that  the  apostles  never  attempted  to 
restore  a  beheaded  person  to  life.  No  effort  was  made  to  re- 
store John  the  Baptist  to  life ;  nor  was  an  effort  ever  made 
by  any  apostle  to  restore  to  life  any  very  old  man  or  woman. 
They  made  no  effort  to  restore  to  life  any  one  who  had  been 
killed  on  the  field  of  battle,  or  murdered  on  the  highway. 
The  art  of  restoring  the  supposed  dead  to  life  was  in  use 
ages  before  the  days  of  the  apostles,  as  will  be  seen  from  an 
examination  of  the  case  of  the  Shunaniite's  son,  by  Elijah, 
2  Kings,  iv :  34.  He  put  his  mouth  upon  his  mouth,  and 
his  eyes  upon  his  eyes,  and  his  hands  upon  his  hands,  and 
stretched  himself  upon  the  child,  and  it  revived.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  Elijah  believed  there  was  life  in  the  child;  his  ob-, 
ject  was  to  restore  warmth  to  the  body  of  the  sick  child. 
Christ  and  the  apostles  made  an  improvement  on  Elijah's 
art.  They  frequently  excited  their  subjects  into  action. — 
Peter  said  unto  the  lame  man  at  the  gate  of  the  temple,  "Iq 


16 

the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of  iN'azareth,  rise  up  and  walk." 
And  he  leaped  up.  We  have  often  heard  of  sick  persons,  in 
a  low  state  of  healthy  being  aroused  by  the  cry  of  fire,  &c. 
And  on  this  principle,  small  boys  have  carried  large  bur- 
dens from  burning  houses,  which  they  were  unable  to  move 
after  the  excitement  had  subsided.  Some  of  the  religious 
excitements  of  a  late  date  have  been  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
require  the  strength  of  two  or  three  able  men  to  hold  one 
delicate  young  lady.  Could  not  such  excitements  be  ex- 
tended so  as  to  affect  the  sick  and  halt?  We  may  suppose 
excitement  had  something  to  do  in  causing  the  death  of  An- 
anias and  Sapphira  his  wife.  See  Acts  v.  Men  and  women 
have  frequently  died  under  similar  circumstances  since  the 
death  of  Peter.  The  apostles  were  in  possession  of  the  art 
to  handle  venemous  serpents,  without  being  injured  by  them, 
but  are  not  men  in  possession  of  a  similar,  if  not  the  same 
art?  We  have  not  time  to-day  to  say  more  on  this  impor- 
tant subject.  We  now  leave  with  you  what  we  have  said, 
with  our  best  wishes  for  your  present  and  future  happiness. 


"v. 


THE  POWEK  TO  FOliGIVE. 


J^    SERMOiT 


DELIVERED  BY  THE  LATE 


REY.    JOHI    A.    GRETTER. 


BEFORE   THE 


PRESBYTERY    OF    ORANGE, 


AT  WASHINGTON,  N.  C, 


DECEMBER,  1849. 


PUBLISHED  BY  EEQUEST  OF  THAT  BODY. 


FAYETTEVILLE,  K.  C. : 
FEINTED  AT  THE  PRESBYTEEIAN  OFFICE. 

1859. 


EXPLANATORY  STATEMENT. 


This  Sekmon  was  originally  delivered  by  special  request  of  OraBge  Picsbytery, 
before  that  Body,  at  its  sessions  in  Washington,  N.  C,  December,  1849.  The  ini- 
pressiou  produced  on  the  minds  of  those  wlio  heard  it  on  that  occasion,  was  such  us 
to  ci'cate  a  desire  that  it  might  be  preserved  in  a  permanent  form  for  the  edification 
of  the  Church.  If  the  life  of  the  author  had  been  spared,  the  sermon  would,  doubt- 
less, have  been  prepared  for  the  press,  under  his  own  direction.  A  constant  succes- 
sion of  pastoral  and  pulpit  duties,  followed  by  a  protracted  illness,  and  closed  by 
death  in  1853,  prevented  the  accomplishment  of  this  work,  in  the  lifetime  of  the  au- 
thor. Tiie  desire  ior  its  publication  was  by  no  means  extinguished  by  that  mournful 
event.  In  addition  to  the  reasons  previously  existing,  in  the  eloquence  of  the  ser- 
mon, its  profound  reasoning,  the  importance  of  the  doctrine,  and  its  special  adap- 
tation to  the  times,  a  new  motive  was  furnished  by  the  natural  and  earnest  desire 
which  the  author's  friends  felt  ior  the  possession  of  some  memento  of  his  great  worth 
and  usefulness. 

The  memory  of  John  A.  Giietter,  is  precious  to  the  heart  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  North  Carolina.  In  every  relation  of  life,  as  Pastor,  as  Preacher,  as 
Counsellor  in  our  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  and  as  a  friend,  he  was  honored'  and  beloved. 

By  a  singular  coincidence  in  the  place,  the  Manuscripts  of  the  Sermon  were  pre- 
sented by  Mrs.  Gretter  to  the  Presbytery  at  Washington,  Xovember,  1858. 

The  following  minute  was  unanimously  adopted  : 

"  The  Committee  appointed  to  examine  a  Manuscript  Sermon  by  the  late  Rev. 
John  A.  Gretter,  on  the  "Power  to  Forgive,"  beg  leave  to  report  that  they  have 
examined  the  same,  and  find  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  in  reading  the  manuscript,  but 
have  learned  enough  of  the  Sermon  to  conclude  that  it  is  worth  the  publishing,  pro- 
vided it  can  be  done.     Therefore 

Resolved,  That  this  Manuscript  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Editors  of  the  North 
Carolina  Presbyterian  to  be  published  by  them  in  their  paper,  and  also  in  pamphlet 
form,  provided  they  can  do  the  author  justice  in  so  doing." 

The  publication  has  been  subject  to  a  brief  delay,  from  the  fact  that  the  sermon 
was  not  complete  in  any  one  manuscript,  and  the  Editors  found  it  necessary  to  com- 
pare and  compile  from  several.  They  have  taken  no  liberties  with  the  author's  views 
or  phraseology,  and  while  to  them  their  work  has  been  a  labor  of  love,  they  send 
forth  the  sermon  from  the  Press  with  the  prayer  that  its  perusal  may  be  greatly- 
blessed  in  comforting  and  confirming  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  God. 


SERMON. 


Matt,  ix :  6,  1. — "  But  that  ye  may  know  that  the  Sou  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins,  (then  saith  He  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy,)  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and 
go  unto  thine  house.     And  he  arose,  and  departed  to  his  house." 

Among  the  crowd  which  gathered  around  the  person  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  in  his  journeyings  in  the  land  of  his  birth,  the  sa- 
cred writers  frequently  make  mention  of  some  separated  from 
the  rest  by  their  bitterness  towards  him  and  his  doctrines.  These 
men,  wrapped  in  an  overweening  conceit  of  their  peculiar  devot- 
deness  to  God,  could  not  brook  the  thought  of  being  eclipsed  by 
the  superior  lustre  of  another  religious  teacher  as  unpretending 
in  his  manners  as  he  was  ardent  in  his  piety,  and  as  illustrious  in 
his  deeds  as  he  was  obscure  in  his  origin.  These  Pharisees, 
the  learned  Doctors  of  the  law,  (for  it  is  of  these  I  speak)  with  a 
jealous  eye,  watched  his  every  motion,  and  stood  ready  to  carp 
at  all  he  did,  and  wrest  all  he  said,  if  possible,  to  his  destruction. 
Neither  awed  by  his  power,  nor  attracted  by  his  wisdom,  nor 
subdued  by  his  beneficence,  each  successive  manifestation  of  his 
more  than  human  greatness,  only  goaded  them  on  to  fiercer  ha- 
tred and  more  shameless  opposition,  till  at  length  we  hear  them 
crying  around  the  cross  "  if  he  be  the  Son  of  God  let  him  come 
down,"  Kot  a  few  of  these  men  in  pursuit  of  their  victim  had 
assembled  at  Capernaum  and  might  have  been  seen  seated  qui- 
etly amid  the  despised  Galileans — when  a  palsied  man,  all  other 
mode  of  access  barred  by  the  pressure  of  the  crowd,  was  let 
down  by  his  friends  from  the  roof  of  the  house  immediately  at 
the  feet  of  Jesus.  This  was  a  spectacle  calculated  to  touch  eve- 
ry heart  in  the  vast  crowd.  Much  more  so  would  it  afi'ect  the 
compassionate  Jesus.  He  at  once  said  to  the  poor  paralytic — 
"Son,  be  of  good  cheer,  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee."     Language 


G 

like  tLis  souudecl  strangely  in  the  eans  ut'  llie  Doctors  iA'  the  law, 
who  said  in  their  hearts,  "  Who  is  this  that  speaketh  blasplie- 
mies  ?  Who  can  forgive  sins  bnt  God  alone ?"  And  they  secretly 
charged  him  with  hlasphemy.  To  convince  them  that  he  actu- 
ally possessed  the  power  Avhicli  he  pretended  to  exercise,  and 
that  their  accusation  was  accordingly  false,  Jesus  now  spoke 
again  to  the  palsied  man  bidding  him  take  up  his  bed  and  go  to 
his  house,  and  the  man  was  immediately  enabled  to  obey  the 
command. 

It  may  seem  a  little  remarkable,  that  our  Lord  should  have 
noticed  a  charge  brought  against  him,  in  this  way.  Though  of 
a  serious  nature,  it  was  entertained  only  in  the  bosoms  of  some 
of  his  hearers,  and  had  he  not  brought  it  to  light,  it  had  probably 
never  been  known,  save  to  those  who  preferred  it.  Yet  it  is  ob- 
vious that  according  to  the  vie/rs  of  these  men,  Jesus  had  laid 
himself  open  to  such  a  charge.  In  professedly  exercising  the 
authority  to  forgive  sins  he  had  assumed  a  prei'Ogative  of  the 
Godhead — being  a  man,  he  had  made  himself  equal  with  God. 
Besides,  the  secrecy  of  the  accusation  afforded  him  a  fair  oppor- 
tunity of  rectifying  their  false  \iews  relative  to  his  true  charac- 
ter. He  read  their  very  thoughts  and  thus  proved  himself  to 
them,  the  great  searcher  of  hearts  and  trier  of  the  reins  of  the 
children  of  men.  And  yet  farther,  while  exposing  to  public  gaze 
the  sentiments  of  these  men  that  he  might  show  their  falsity,  he 
was  at  the  same  moment  extending  the  hand  of  mercy  to  the 
wretched  man  before  him  and  rewarding  the  faith  of  friends  so 
clearly  exhibited  in  their  efforts  to  bring  the  object  of  their  so- 
licitude in  reach  of  his  healing  influence.  Thus  our  Lord  in  vin- 
dicating himself  from  this  charge  gave  to  his  hearers  more  ex- 
alted views  of  his  character,  confounded  his  enemies  by  a  pecu- 
liar manifestation  of  his  Godhead,  and  conferred  a  rich  boon  on 
a  poor  sinner  who  had  sought  his  aid.  It  was  worthy  of  him 
thus  to  notice  it. 


Again,  we  must  not  overlook  the  circumstance  on  which  this 
accusation  was  founded.  This  was  the  language  of  Jesus  ad. 
dressed  to  the  sick  man,  "Son,  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee."  The 
expression  seems  to  be  rather  ambiguous.  It  may  mean  either 
"thy  sins  are  forgiven."  or  "let  thy  sins  be  iorgiven,"  i.  e.  the 
verb   may  be  either  in  the  indicative  or  imperative  mood,     in 


the  one  case  the  phrase  would  be  a  simple  declaration  that  his 
sins  were  forgiven — so  Campbell  understands  it,  and  substitutes 
tire,  tbi"  he  in  his  translation.  In  the  other  it  would  be  the  effica- 
cious word  which  secures  forgiveness,  manifesting  the  will  of 
him  who  has  the  power  to  forgive — analogous  to  the  word  which 
said,  "  Let  there  be  light  and  there  was  light."  Nor  does  the 
word  in  the  original  remove  the  ambiguity ;  it  is  a  particular 
form  of  the  verb  which  has  given  some  ditficulty  to  grammarians. 
Yater  says  it  is  the  perfect  pass.,  a  form  unknown  to  the  Greeks. 
Bretschneider  regard  sit  as  an  Ionic  form  for  2  Aor.  middle,  subj. 

In  the  former  it  means  "thy  sins  are"  or  "have  been  forgiv- 
en ;"  in  the  latter  "  let  them  be"  &c.  We  find,  however,  that 
the  Pharisees  understood  him  as  actually  forgiving  sins,  for  they 
said  in  their  hearts,  "  Why  doth  this  man  thus  speak  blasphe- 
mies ?  Who  can  forgive  sins  but  God  only  ?"  (Mark  ii :  7.) 
This,  however,  does  not  prove  that  the  expression  used  by  our 
Lord  was  authoritative,  but  it  does  prove  that  an  unconditional 
declaration  of  forgiveness  is,  so  far  as  the  individual  himself  who 
makes  it  is  concerned,  a  daring  invasion  of  the  divine  preroga- 
tive, and  in  all  respects  to  his  case,  tantamount  to  an  authorita 
tive  forgiveness.  So  thought  the  Pharisees  and  our  Lord  en- 
dorsed their  opinion. 

The  course  here  pursued  by  our  Lord  in  view  of  the  um- 
bra2::e  taken  by  the  Pharisees  at  his  conduct  is  conclusive  that 
he  was  willing  at  any  rate  to  be  regarded  as  having  claimed  the 
power  to  forgive.  It  follows  then,  in  whichever  way  these  words 
-of  our  Lord  be  rendered  that  an  unGondiiional  declaration  of 
jyardon  to  an  indinidual  is  an  offence  as  heinous  as  that  of  claim 
ing  the  full  authority  to  forgive.  Once  more,  we  invite  atten- 
tion to  the  manner  in  which  Jesus  vindicated  himself  from  the 
accusation  of  the  Pharisees.  "  But  that  ye  may  know  that  the 
Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins  (then  saith  he 
to  the  sick  of  the  palsy,)  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  unto 
thine  house.  And  he  arose  and  departed  to  his  house."  Than 
this,  we  can  conceive  no  surer  proof  of  unlimited  power.  The 
word  which  speaks,  audit  stands  fast,  is  not  only  a  word  of  pow- 
er, but  it  is  the  word  of  the  Creator.     The  being,  between  whose 

declared  will',  and  the  effect  produced,  there  is  no  intermediate 
circumstance,  and  no  intervening  conceivable  time,  is  t  ic  Be- 
ing, who  is  girded  with  Omnipotence. 


8 

He  who  wills  and  it  is  done ;  whose  fiat  instantly  socnres  the 
»esnlt  aimed  at,  is  and  mu^tbe  to  our  conceptions  the  Lord  God 
Almighty.  There  is  no  more  certain  indication  of  Almightiness 
than  this.  There  may  be  brighter  and  more  dazzling  corusca- 
tions of  this  glorious  perfection  in  yon  world  of  glory,  which  sin 
has  never  darkened  ;  there  may  be  here  on  earth  more  overpow- 
ering exhibitions,  but  there  are  Rone  which  can  more  surely  cer- 
tify us  of  the  presence  of  the  arm  which  none  can  resist.  lie 
then  who  says  to  a  paralytic,  "  Arise  and  take  up  thy  bed  and 
go  to  thine  house,"  when  instantly  the  man  in  view  of  all  around 
arises  and  walks  ;  this  one,  man  though  he  seem  to  be  and 
though  he  actually  be,  must  at  the  same  time  be  clothed  with 
the  power  of  doing  whatever  he  pleaseth.  If  this  be  not  a  man- 
ifestation of  Omnipotence,  there  can  none  be  given  to  us  :  then 
is  all  distinction  between  the  Infinite  and  finite  annihilated  to 
our  view.  Let  us  now  return  to  the  history.  It  is  admitted  on 
all  hands  that  Jesus  on  this  occasion  gave  evidence  that  he  had 
power  to  forgive  sins  on  earth.  "  Here  was  an  ocular  demonstra- 
tion" says  Dr.  Campbell,  "  of  the  power  with  which  the  order  was 
accompanied,  and  therefore  was  entirely  fit  for  serving  as  evi- 
dence that  the  other  expression  he  had  used,  "thy  sins  be  for- 
given thee"  was  not  vain  words,  but  attended  with  the  like  divine 
energy,  though  from  its  nature,  not  discernible  like  the  other  by 
its  consequences.  To  say  the  one  with  effect,  where  effect  was 
visible,  is  a  proof  that  the  other  was  said  also  with  effect,  though 
the  effect  itself  was  invisible."  Again  it  will  not  be  denied  that 
Jesus  here  also  showed  himself  to  be  one  with  the  Father,  equal 
in  power  and  glory.  If  now  it  be  farther  taken  into  considera- 
tion that  this  manifestation  of  divine  glory  so  clearly  evidencing 
our  Lord  to  be  at  the  same  time  God  and  to  have  power  to  forgive 
sins  on  earth,  was  given  to  clear  himself  in  the  eyes  of  the  Phar- 
isees, who  had  said  that  none  can  forgive  sins  but  God  only, — 
the  conclusion  is  almost  irresistible,  that  Jesus  meant  to  sanction 
the  truth  of  the  doctrine  on  which  these  men  had  proceeded.  In 
other  words,  Jesus  here  showed  himself  to  be  God.  For  what 
]>urpose  ?  That  he  might  prove  he  had  power  to  forgive  sins  on 
earth.  Was  the  proof  sufficient?  It  is  not  denied.  Was  it  ne- 
cessary ?  Would  not  an  evidence  short  of  this  liave  answered 
every  purpose  ?    Was  it  essential  to  prove  his  Godhead  to  con- 


9 

« 

vince  his  hearers  that  he  had  made  no  false  pretensions  t  To  this 
we  reply  that  is  was  certainly  necessary,  so  long  as  the  Phari- 
sees maintained  the  views  they  then  held — that  none  hut  God 
can  forgive  sins.  "Were  they  in  error  on  this  point  ?  The  pre- 
sumption is,  they  were  not,  otherwise  Jesus  would  have-  correct- 
ed that  error.  All  correct  apprehensions  of  his  character  forbid 
the  belief  that  our  Lord  would  have  thus  manifested  his  glory^ 
if  the  same  end  could  have  been  reached  without  it,  and  that 
in  the  exercise  of  this  discretionary  power,  he  declares  his  right- 
eousness that  he  may  be  just,  and  the  justiiier  of  him  which  be- 
lieveth  in  Jesus.  These  are  truths  written  so  legibly  and  so  fre- 
quently in  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  so  un- 
speakably precious  to  poor  sinners,  that  we  may  for  the  present 
assume  them  as  undeniable  and  not  stop  to  establish  them.  But 
that  God  onl}'-  can  forgive  sins — that  the  power  of  forgiveness  iis- 
not  only  inherent  in  him,  but  reserved  entirely  in  his  own  hands,, 
is  a  point  which  some  deny  and  we  affirm.  This  point  will 
form  the  subject  of  the  present  discussion. 

However  clear  may  be  the  fact  that  powers  of  the  highest  of- 
fices may  be  and  continually  are  delegated  to  others — yet  it  is 
obvious  that  there  must  be  a  limit  somewhere — there  must  be 
some  prerogative  peculiar  to  the  Sovereign  and  reserved  in. his 
own  hands,  which  cannot  be  transferred — otherwise  all  distinc- 
tion between  the  supreme  and  inferior  power  is  confounded. 

Lord  Bacon  in  some  excellent  remarks  on  this  subject,  has 
pointed  out  this  limit,  as  it  seems  to  us,  in  the  clearest  manner. 
He  regards  the  prerogative  in  two  distinct  branches.  In  the  one 
the  King's  pleasure  is  reserved  in  the  Sovereign's  hands  to  be  ex- 
ercised in  each  case  according  to  his  personal  and  private  discre- 
tion. According  to  this  distinction  it  is  obvious  not  only  that 
there  is  a  prerogative  which  cannot  possibly  be  transferred,  but 
the  reason  why  is  equally  manifest.  A  prerogative  entirely 
controlled  in  every  case  by  the  private  pleasure  of  the  sovereign 
must  from  its  very  nature  be  incommunicable,  because,  1st.  the 
private  pleasure  of  no  man  can  become  that  of  another,  and  2nd,, 
because  if  it  were  possible,  such  a  transfer  invests  a  subject  with 
a  power  to  rule  his  fellow  subjects  according  to  his  own  pleasure^ 
i.  e.  makes  him  most  absolute  sovereign. 

These  remarks  apply  with  much  more  force  and  truth  to  the 


10 

• 

Jehovah  of  the  Scriptures,  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords — the  Blessed  and  only  Potentate — doing  his  will  in  the 
armies  of  heaven  and  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth.  It 
were  preposterous  to  suppose  that  in  a  Sovereign  wielding  such 
a  sceptre,  there  were  no  powers  in  themselves  inalienable  or  none 
which  a  creature  is  totally  unable  to  wield.  Besides,  a  divine  pre- 
rogative in  some  of  its  branches  may  require  for  its  execution, 
the  presence  of  some  of  the  distinguishing  attributes  of  the 
Godhead,  and  cannot  accordingly  be  delegated  to  another 
without  confounding  the  distinctions  between  the  Infinite  and 
the  finite — the  Creator  and  the  creature.  The  exercise  of 
the  power  may  involve  the  presence  of  attributes,  the  transfer- 
rence  of  which  is  the  investiture  of  the  being  to  whom  they 
are  transferred  with  the  distinguishing  excellency  of  the  great 
God.  And  if  these  distinctive  perfections  may  be  bestowed  on 
another  who  is  not  God,  how  can  the  Holy  One  manifest  him- 
self to  his  creatures  so  as  to  be  known  from  and  above  them  all? 

The  possession  of  the  divine  excellency  is  to  "us  the  evidence 
of  his  presence  and  agency;  the  manifestation  of  those  attri- 
butes which  constitute  the  divine  excellency  must  then  prove 
that  the  Being  in  whom  they  shone  forth  is  God  and  not  another. 
Omnipotence,  for  example,  belongs  to  God  alone.  He  who  can 
<io  whatever  he  pleaseth  in  heaven  or  on  earth,  for  whom  no- 
thing is  too  hard,  he  can  be  none  other  than  the  Lofty  One,  who 
inhabits  the  praises  of  eternity.  This  is  an  attribute,  whose  pre- 
sence defines  to  our  faith  the  Being  who  made  and  upholds  us, 
and  to  whom  we  are  bound  to  render  our  highest  services.  Again : 
To  search  the  heart  and  try  the  reins  of  men  is  another  perfec- 
tion of  the  Deity.  "  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things  and 
■desperately  wicked  :  who  can  know  it  ?  I  the  Lord,  search  the 
heart,  I  try  the  reins,  even  to  give  every  man  according  to  his 
ways,  and  according  to  the  fruit  of  his  doings."  If  then  the 
Scriptures  are  our  rule  in  faith  and  practice,  he  who  discerns  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  my  heart  is  Jehovah,  and  as  often  as 
he  does  this,  he  calls  me  to  own  and  acknowledge  him  as  the 
•only  true  God.  These  and  others  which  might  be  mentioned  are, 
•what  have  been  called  by  an  old  divine,  so  many  royalties  of  the 
divine  nature — sucli  as  no  creature  can  share  in.  He  who  is 
clothed  with  theee  is  He^  whom  we  need  not  fear  to  worship  as 


11 

the  Lord  God.  Though  to  the  eye  he  may  seem  to  be  man,  yet 
if  he  is  girded  with  Omnipotence,  infinite  in  knowledge  &c., 
he  is  our  Immanuel,  God  in  the  flesh.  Such  indeed  was  Je- 
sus of  Kazareth.  He  was  a  man  in  outward  appearance. 
He  was  encompassed  with  all  the  infirmities  of  our  nature. 
And  when  he  claimed  to  be  God,  the  thought  seemed  al- 
most incredible.  Strange  indeed  was  it  that  one  like  our- 
selves should  claim  to  be  the  God  who  made  us.  Yet  he 
proved  himself  to  be  all  he  claimed  to  be — he  showed  his  fear- 
less majesty  in  the  displays  of  the  distinguishing  perfections 
of  the  Godhead  he  put  foith.  Thus  we  know  him  to  be  our  God 
and  Saviour.  The  indwelling  of  the  divine  excellency  leaves 
no  doubt  on  this  point.  "  The  word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us"  says  John,  "and  we  beheld  his  glory,  as  the  glory  of 
the  only  begotten  Son  of  God."  "We  see  then  that  a  divine  pre- 
rogative may  be  limited  in  reference  to  its  exercise  by  any  other, 
both  from  its  nature  and  its  requiring  in  its  execution  the  pre- 
sence of  such  attributes  as  cannot  be  committed  without  break- 
ing down  the  enclosure  which  separates  the  Great  Iam  from  the 
creatures  of  his  hands.  And  the  question  we  now  wish  to  settle 
is  whether  the  power  to  forgive  sins  is  such  a  prerogative. 

In  order  to  reach  a  satisfactory  answer  to  this  inquiry,  let  us 
for  a  few  moments  consider  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the 
forgivness  of  sins.  This  will  prepare  the  way  for  our  entrance 
on  another  enquiry :  what  is  implied  in  the  power  to  forgive  2 
from  which  it  will  be  comparatively  easy  to  return  a  categorical 
reply  to  our  main  question. 

1.  "What  is  forgiveness  of  sins? 

"  Sin  is  any  want  of  conformity  unto  or  transgression  of  the 
law  of  God."  It  accordingly  implies  a  moral  agent,  a  law,  and 
a  lawgiver.  It  may  therefore  be  regarded  in  these  three  difi*er- 
ent  relations,  in  each  of  which  it  presents  a  difl'erent  and  import- 
ant aspect.  Considered  simply  in  reference  to  the  agent,  the 
sins  of  an  individual  are  nothing  more  than  his  thoughts,  feel- 
ings, words,  and  deeds,  and  form  but  just  so  many  items  or  facts 
in  the  records  of  his  history,  or  to  use  the  language  of  Scripture 
in  "  the  Book  of  God's  remembrance."  Here  they  are  "  written 
with  a  pen  of  iron  and  with  the  point  of  a  diamond" — here  they 
must  ever  preserve  their  place,  and  are  of  course  imperishable 
and  indestructible.     In  relation  to  the  law,  the  standard  of  right 


13 

and  wrong,  sin  is  a  deflection  from  the  mark  it  sets  up,  a  devia' 
tion  from  the  path  it  defines.  This  constitutes  its  sinfulness  and 
gives  rise  to  its  ill  desert.  The  law  of  God  being  holj  and  just 
and  good,  every  violation  of  its  injunctions  or  departure  from 
its  requisitions  must  be  evil  in  itself,  and  attach  moral  turpitude 
to  him  who  is  chargeable  with  such  violation.  This  law  being 
further  inflexible  and  immutable  in  its  demands,  this  feature  must 
be  an  inseparable  adjunct  of  sin.  The  sinner  then  deserves  to 
perish,  and  will  forever  deserve  to  perish,  if  dealt  with  accord- 
ing to  his  personal  deserts.  Again,  the  Lawgiver,  being  the  vin- 
dicator and  guardian  of  law,  and  the  law  binding  to  obedience 
and  in  default  thereof  to  punishment,  there  arises  another  im- 
portant aspect  of  sin,  as  laying  the  individual  chargeable  with  it, 
under  obligcdions  to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  Lawgiver.  In 
this  aspect  sin  is  a  debt  of  suffering  which  the  sinner  owes  God, 
as  the  avenger  of  the  claims  of  his  law.  So  our  Lord  has  taught 
us  to  regard  it  in  the  prayer  he  has  given  us  as  the  model  to 
which  our  petitions  should  be  conformed.  ."Forgive  us  our 
debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors."  This  debt,  however,  is  sim- 
ply a  legal  claim,  and  if  that  claim  can  be  otherwise  satisfied 
than  by  the  personal  suffering  of  the  sinner,  it  is  obvious  that 
this  obligation  will  no  more  remain.  This  obligation  to  suffer- 
ing arising  out  of  sin,  called  in  technical  language  guilt,  is  a 
feature,  though  not  inseparable  from  it. 

Thus  we  see  there  are  three  views  of  sin  distinguishable  and 
distinct  from  each  other,  viz  :  the  act,  its  sinfulness  and  its  guilt, 
or  the  liability  to  suffer  which  it  induces  in  the  agent,  and  of 
these  only  one  can  be  separated  from  it.  But  as  we  are  anxiou8 
to  be  fully  understood,  we  will  illustrate  what  has  been  said  by 
an  example  taken  from  human  law.  We  will  suppose  that  a 
man  having  killed  another,  is  arraigned  on  the  charge  of  mur- 
<ler.  The  first  inquiry  will  be  into  the  fact.  Did  he  commit 
the  act?  Did  he  kill  the  individual  supposed?  This  is  a  pre- 
liminary step  which  cannot  be  dispensed  with,  and  brings  the 
crime  before  the  view  of  all  concerned,  simply  as  a  deed  or  act 
on  his  part.  This,  hov/ever,  being  settled  and  the  deed  proved 
to  have  been  committed  by  him,  it  does  not  necessarily  folio  ,v 

that  he  is  a  murderer,  or  in  other  words  that  he  is  criminal. 

This  point  requires  a  separate  investigation  and  is  to  be  decided 


18 

hy  the  voice  of  the  law.  Se  is  to  be  brought,  as  it  were,  along 
side  the  law  and  viewed  in  the  light  which  it  sheds  upon  him. 
If  then,  though  a  competent  number  of  witnesses  shall  have  de- 
clared that  he  committed  the  act,  it  shall  be  seen  that  he  did  it 
in  self-defence  or  accidentally,  the  law  attaches  no  criminality  to 
the  deed,  and  the  man  is  declared  innocent,  he  has  not  violated 
the  law.  Supposing  however,  he  has  killed  his  neighbor  with 
malice  aforethought,  and  thus  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  deserves  to 
■Buffer,  there  is  yet  another  step  to  be  taken.  Sentence  must  be 
pronounced  by  him,  who  appears  as  the  guardian  and  upholder  of 
the  law.  This  sentence  is  but  the  authoritative  voice  of  the  law 
fastening  on  the  head  of  the  criminal  the  obligation  of  punish- 
ment. He  is  liable  to  death.  But  this  liability  to  suffer — a  le- 
;gal  obligation  to  punishment — -may  be  removed  by  the  interposi- 
tion of  the  executive  or  monarch.  In  the  exercise  of  his  su- 
(preme  power,  he  may  put  forth  his  arm  between  the  law  and 
the  head  of  the  criminal  and  set  aside  this  obligation.  The  maa 
then,  though  he  killed  his  neighbor,  and  in  so  doing  violated  the 
law  and  was  exposed  to  punishment,  goes  unpunished.  JSTo  one 
can  molest  him.  In  this  process  we  see  three  different  steps — 
each  one  bringing  the  crime  into  different  relations  and  conse- 
quently presenting  it  in  different  aspects  as  a  deed,  its  crimi- 
nality and  the  obligation  to  punishment.  The  first  two  are 
necessary  to  constitute  it  a  crime,  and  in  this  light  cannot 
be  separated  from  it— the  last  may  or  may  not  abide  in  con- 
nection with  it  even  as  a  crime.  Who  can  doubt  that  the  mat- 
ter of  Uriah  the  Hittite  is  truly  as  blameworthy,  as  base  now, 
as  it  was  when  Israel's  king  under  the  lashes  of  an  awakened 
conscience  cried  out  in  anguish,  "  Deliver  me,  O  God  from  blood 
e:uiltiness?"  Who  doubts  that  it  will  be  as  true,  and  as  vile  in 
all  the  rolling  ages  of  eternity,  and  that  David  will  never  be  able 
to  stand  before  the  throne  of  God  on  the  ground  of  his  personal 
deserts  ?  Yet  David's  blood  guiltiness  has  been  removed  and 
Uriah's  murderer  lives — he  livtiS  in  triumph  and  glory. 

Let  this  illustration  suffice  to  show,  that  there  is  one  and  only 
'one  element  of  sin,  which  is  capable  of  being  separated  from  it, 
and  this  is  its  guilt.  This,  we  think,  must  appear  obvious  to  all 
•on  reflection.  In  reference  to  sins  which  are  registered  among 
the  deeds  which  are  past,  no  one  can  suppose  that  they  shall 


14 

ever  be  blotted  out.  They  must  forever  abide  in  the  presence 
of  Him^  with  whom  there  is  no  past.  Nor  can  we  for  a  moment 
believe  that  their  sinfulness  will  be  separated  from  them,  for  this 
is  an  essential  element  of  their  nature  as  sins.  Take  the  sinful- 
ness out  and  they  are  no  more  sins.  Unless  then  the  lapse  of 
ages  shall  make  that  which  was  once  sinful  no  longer  so — or 
unless  the  Law  of  God  shall  be  changed — then  this  element  must 
abide.  There  remains  then  as  we  hav-e  seen  only  the  obligation 
to  suffer  which  sin  fastens  on  the  agent,  which  can  be  removed. 
The  taking  this  obligation  to  punishment  off  from  the  head  of 
the  sinner,  or  the  removal  of  his  guilt,  in  consequence  of  which 
under  the  government  of  God,  no  punishment,  though  deserved, 
will  or  can  follow,  is  what  we  mean  by  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 
This  essential  view  of  forgiveness  is  too  frequently  presented  in 
the  Scriptures  to  escape  the  notice  of  any  who  read  them  under- 
standingiy.  Certainly  no  idea  was  more  familiar  to  the  Jews 
than  that  of  the  transference  of  his  obligation  to  suffer  in  con- 
sequence of  sin,  to  the  head  of  a  victim,  which  because  of  this 
transference  suffered  in  his  place.  When  he  brought  his  victim 
to  the  altar,  he  was  required  to  lay  his  hands  on  its  head  and 
confess  his  sins,  then  having  slain  the  victim — the  animal  suf- 
fered in  his  place — he  went  away  guiltless.  Atonement  was 
made  for  him,  his  sin  was  forgiven.  These  victims  prefigured 
"  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,'^ 
and  according  to  the  peculiar  polity  of  the  Jews,  according  to 
which  every  offence  incurred  the  penalty  of  death,  were  accepted 
as  substitutes  in  the  place  of  the  offenders.  The  idea  however 
of  cancelling  guilt  was  prominent  in  their  minds  in  all  aspects. 
Laying  the  hands  on  the  head  of  the  animal,  confessing  sins  and 
then  slaying  the  victim,  were  all  significant  of  a  passing  over  of 
something  on  the  part  of  the  offender  from  him  to  an  innocent 
creature,  in  consequence  of  which  that  creature  must  die.  That 
something  which  is  thus  transferred,  is  that  which  renders  it 
proper  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  that  the  innocent  sliould  suffer 
which  is  guilt.  This  being  put  on  the  head  of  another,  we  see 
at  once  why  it  should  die  according  to  law.  Now  according  to 
the  method  of  salvation  revealed  in  the  Scriptures,  this  obliga- 
tion to  suffering  is  not  removed  from  the  sinner  by  a  sovereign 
act  setting  aside  the  claims  of  the  law — but  by  a  judicial  act 


15 

upholding  its  utmost  rigors  by  declaring  it  to  be  fully  satisfied 
in  his  case.  This  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  scheme  of  redemption. 
This  is  its  exceeding  glory.  The  sinner  is  not  simply  pardoned, 
he  is  justified — pronounced  to  be  just  in  the  eye  of  the  law. 
The  law  is  not  disregarded,  but  its  honor  vindicated  and  magni- 
fied. All  its  claims  are  acknowledged  and  satisfied,  and  there- 
fore no  more  rest  on  the  sinner.  And  the  Lawgiver  himself 
stands  forth  to  view  as  the  just,  yet  the  justifier  of  the  ungodly. 
All  this  however  presupposes  a  suflicient  satisfaction  made  to  the 
law  for  sinners,  which  in  each  case  of  forgiveness  is  reckoned  to 
the  individual.  In  consequence  of  this  imputation  of  a  righte- 
ousness to  him,  the  sinner  himself  becomes  righteous  and  there 
is  no  more  condemnation  to  him.  His  sins  are  covered  and  can 
no  more  rise  up  against  him.  God  has  bestowed  upon  him  the 
righteousness  of  his  Son  and  the  gift  of  faith  whereby  he  has  re- 
ceived this  righteousness.  "  Blessed  is  he,"  says  David,  "  whose 
trangression  is  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered.  Blessed  is  the 
man  to  whom  the  Lord  imputeth  not  iniquity,  and  in  whose 
spirit  there  is  no  guile."  Paul  tells  us  that  David  is  here  de- 
scribing the  blessedness  of  the  man  to  whom  God  imputeth  right- 
eousness without  works.  Thus  we  are  taught  that  transgression 
when  forgiven  is  covered  and  no  more  imputed — and  it  is  cover- 
ed by  a  righteousness  without  works  on  the  part  of  the  sinner, 
a  righteousness  which  God  imputes  to  him.  It  is  important 
here  to  observe  that  in  this  procedure  God  has  done  two  things 
for  the  pardoned  sinner.  He  has  ofiicially  declared  him  to  be 
righteous  and  free  from  all  demands  of  the  law.  He  has  also 
reckoned  to  him  a  righteousness  which  is  not  his  own  by  works 
but  which  has  become  his  through  the  faith  of  Jesus.  In  the 
one  of  these  God  has  proceeded  on  his  own  previous  act,  i.  e.  in 
pronouncing  the  sinner  just — he  has  done  so  because  of  the  pre- 
vious imputation  to  him  of  the  righteousness  set  forth  in  the 
Gospel — the  full  satisfaction  made  to  the  law  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Such  we  believe  to  be  the  scriptural  view  of  forgiveness.  Let 
us  now  attentively  consider  it  for  a  few  moments — that  we  may 
discern  the  nature  of  the  act  itself.     I  observe  then, 

1.  Forgiveness  is  an  act  of  supremacy.  As  has  been  already 
mentioned,  there  are  in  each  act  of  forgiveness  two  acts  implied, 


16 

separate  from  each  other,  because  in  each  God  appears  m  a  dif- 
ferent capacity,  yet  both  concurring,  and  necessary  to  the  same 
result.  In  the  one,  God  shows  himself  the  judge  giving  utter- 
ance to  the  declaration  of  the  law ;  in  the  other,  he  proceeds 
as  a  sovereign  conferring  the  most  precious  gift  on  an  undeserv- 
ing wretch.  But  for  this  gift  instead  of  justifying  the  sinner, 
the  judge  would  have  demanded  the  awful  sentence  of  the  law 
— everlasting  death  as  abiding  upon  him.  Thus  by  an  act  in  his 
sovereign  capacity,  he  reverses  what  he  would  have  done  in  the 
other.  He  turns  the  sentence  of  the  law  away  from  the  poor 
wretch  and  fastens  its  claims  upon  another.  This  is  mosi  clearly 
the  exercise  of  a  prerogative  above  law.  For  why  does  not  the  law 
Btill  maintain  its  claims,  and  demand  the  punishment  of  the  sin- 
ner?  He  has  violated  its  precepts.  He  has  incurred  its  penal- 
ty. Its  condemnatory  voice  was  lifted  up  against  him,  and  con- 
science echoed  back  that  voice.  But  suddenly  all  is  changed  ; 
there  is  now  no  more  condemnation.  The  Judge  whose  duty  it 
is  to  vindicate  the  law  and  enforce  its  sanctions,  pronounces  sen- 
tence of  acquittal  and  acceptance.  Why  is  this?  Because  of 
an  act  which  has  not  set  aside  the  claims  of  the  law,  but  has- 
fixed  them  on  another,  in  whom  they  were  all  satisfied.  This 
then,  though  not  against  law,  nor  regardless  of  law,  is  plainly 
an  act  above  law.  It  is  the  highest  act  of  government.  We 
can  conceive  of  no  higher  stretch  of  dominion  ;  it  is  an  act  of 
supremacy. 

"  The  law  binds  first  to  obedience  and  in  neglect  of  it  to  pun- 
ishment. Not  only  thelusts  that  break  forth  are  evidence  of,  but 
inward  inclinations  contrary  to  the  law  are,  sin.  From  hence  re- 
sults a  guilt  upon  every  sinner,  which  includes  the  imputation 
of  the  fault  and  obligation  to  punishment. 

The  forgiveness  of  eins  contains  the  obligation  of  their  guilt 
and  freedom  from  the  deserved  destruction  consequent  to  it.  This 
is  expressed  by  various  terms  in  Scripture.  The  '  not  imputing 
sin'  is  borrowed  from  the  accounts  of  servants  with  their  masters, 
and  implies  the  account  we  are  obliged  to  render  the  supreme 
Lord  for  all  his  benefits  which  we  have  so  wretchedly  misim- 
proved  ;  he  might  rigliteousl}'"  exact  of  us  ten  thousand  talents 
as  due  to  him,  but  he  is  graciously  pleased  to  cross  the  book 
and  freely  to  discharge  us.     *  The  purging  from  sin'  implies  it  is 


17 

very  odious  and  offensive  in  God's  eyes,  and  has  a  special  re- 
spect to  the  expiatory  sacritices,of  which  it  is  said,  that  "  with- 
out blood  there  was  no  remission," 

It  is  the  high  prerogative  of  God  to  pardon  sin.  His  author- 
ity made  the  law,  and  gives  life  and  vigor  to  it,  therefore  he  can 
remit  the  punishment  of  the  offender. 

This  royal  supremacy  is  more  conspicuous  in  the  exercise  of 
mercy  towards  repenting  sinners,  than  in  the  acts  of  justice  up- 
on obstinate  offenders.  As  a  king  is  more  a  king  by  pardoning 
humble  suppliants  by  the  operation  of  his  sceptre,  than  in  sub- 
duing rebels  by  the  power  of  the  sword,  for  in  acts  of  grace  he 
is  above  the  law,  and  overrules  its  rigor,  in  acts  of  vengeance,  he 
is  only  superior  to  his  enemies  ''^  -' *  It  is  the  peculiar  prerogative 
of  God  to  pardon  sin,  tor  it  is  an  act  of  empire.  The  judicial 
power  to  pardon  is  a  flower  inseparable  from  the  crown,  for  it 
is  founded  in  a  superiority  to  the  law,  therefore  inconsistent  with 
any  depending  authority.  The  power  to  pardon  is  an  etflux  of 
supremacy  and  incommunicable  to  the  subject.  A  prince  that 
invests  another  with  absolute  power  to  pardon,  must  either  re- 
linquish his  sovereignty,  or  take  an  associate  to  share  it.  It  is. 
not  presumable  that  the  wise  God  should  invest  men  with  that 
authority  which  they  are  utterly  incapable  of  exercising. 

Grace  is  exclusive  of  all  merit  and  dignity  in  the  subject,  and 
of  all  obligation  in  the  person  that  shows  it. 

Repentance  in  order  of  nature  is  before  pardon,  but  they  are- 
inseparably  joined  in  the  same  point  of  time.  David  in  Psalm 
xxxii  is  an  instance. 

The  repenting  sinner  wiio  is  under  the  strong  conviction  of 
his  guilt,  and  his  being  always  obnoxious  to  the  judgment  of 
God  and  eternal  misery,  the  consequences  of  it,  values  the 
favor  of  God  as  the  most  sovereign  good,  and  accounts  his  dis- 
pleasure as  the  supreme  evil.  Repentance  inspires  flaming  af- 
fections, in  our  prayers  and  praises  lor  pardon.  The  sinner  is  ob- 
liged to  sufter  the  punishment  of  his  evil  deeds  in  his  own  person, 
therefore  it  is  clear,  tiiat  the  punishment  cannot  be  transferred  to 
another  without  the  allowance  of  the  sovereign,  who  is  the  patron 
of  the  rights  of  justice.  There  is  a  judicial  exchange  of  persons 
between  Christ  and  believers,  their  guilt  is  transferred  to  hin-\ 
and  his  righteousness  is  imputed  to  tliem." — BaUs. 


18 

2.  Each  act  of  forgiveness  is  a  discretionarj  act  of  supremacy. 
"  God  is  merciful  and  gracious,  slow  to  anger  and  plenteous  in 

mercj,"  jet,  though  forgiveness  flows  from  his  gracious  nature  it 
does  not  follow  that  he  will  pardon  every  one.  For  he  saith  to 
Moses,  "I  will  be  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be  gracious  and  will 
show  mercy  on  whom  I  will  show  mercj."  So  Paul — "  Having 
predestinated  us  unto  the  adoption  of  children,  by  Jesus  Christ 
to  himself,  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  his  will,  to  the 
praise  of  the  glory  of  his  grace,  wdiereiu  he  hath  made  us  ac- 
cepted in  the  Beloved."  Ep.  i :  5,  fi.  There  is,  in  each  case,  as  it 
arises,  a  special  interposition  of  his  will.  He  is  at  liberty  to 
exercise  his  grace  or  not,  as  seems  good  in  his  sight.  He  chooses  the 
subjects  towards  whom  he  extends  the  sceptre  of  mercy.  Besides, 
since  pardon  must  be  bestowed  at  the  discretion  of  some  one  or 
more,  being  an  act  above  law,  we  ask  at  whose  discretion  can  it 
safely  lie  ?  The  majesty  of  the  law — the  glory  of  the  Most  High 
and  the  stability  of  the  government,  working  the  happiness  of 
'Countless  multitudes,  are  all  concerned  in  its  exercise.  Who 
but  Jehovah  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  Whose  will  would 
here  afford  any  guaranty  against  sudden  and  sure  destruction  ? 
If  there  be  a  prerogative  which  from  its  nature  must  inhere  in 
the  sovereign,  surely  this  must  be  that  prerogative.  True,  he  has 
promised  forgiveness  to  every  believing  sinner,  and  herein  he 
has  relaxed  his  severity.  But  he  has  done  so,  only  to  magnify 
his  sovereignty,  for  the  promise  to  which  he  has  bound  himself 
is  tlie  gift  of  his  grace.  "  For  ye  are  saved  by  grace,  and  that 
not  of  yourselves.  It  is  the  gift  of  God."  "  The  wages  of  sin  is 
■death."  Thus  he  still  exercises  his  pleasure,  and  at  his  discre- 
tion alone  is  pardon  bestowed. 

3,  Forgiveness  is  ihe  most  amiable  act  of  supremacy. 

The  pardon  of  sin  is  beyond  all  doubt  the  most  precious  boon 
that  can  be  bestowed  on  a  sinner.  It  rolls  back  the  sentence  of 
tlie  law,  lifts  off  from  his  soul  the  overwhelming  burden  of  guilt 
find  lights  up  his  pathway  with  joy  and  peace  unutterable.  Ic 
■dissipates  the  sorrows  of  death  and  mitigates  the  pains  of  hell, 
and  in  their  place  fills  the  mouth  with  the  song  of  praise.  No 
blessedness  like  this  to  a  sinner — compared  with  it,  his  creation 
may  be  forgotten,  for  without  it,  that  creation  were  a  curse. — 
AVhen  then  the  sovereign  disponses  it,  he  presents  himself  to  tlie 


19 

view  of  his  subjects  iu  the  most  endearing  light.  Touched  with 
pity  for  the  misery  of  his  sinful  creature,  and  unwilling  that  he 
should  perish — he  stretches  out  to  the  sinner  at  his  feet  his  scep- 
tre of  mercy  and  bids  him  live — live  forever.  What  can  more 
endear  him  to  his  fallen  creature?  Can  such  a  display  fail  to 
touch  the  springs  of  any  generous  bosom?  Will  not  the  sinner 
be  bound  to  him  by  the  strongest  ties?  Can  he  ever  forget  it,. 
that  he  sought  and  found  pardon  ?  Will  he  not  forget  the  hand 
that  created  him  in  his  own  glory,  in  love  and  admiration  of  the 
hand  that  pardoned  him  ? — Who  can  doubt  it  ? 

4.  Forgiveness  in  each  act  necessarily  implies  the  exercise  of 
Omniscience. 

The  penalty  of  the  law  varies  both  in  kind  and  degree,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  heinousness  as  well  as  the  number  of  the  sins 
committed.  "And  that  servant  that  knew  his  Lord's  will,  and 
prepared  not  himself,  neither  did  according  to  his  will,  shall  be 
beaten  with  many  stripes.  But  he  that  knew  not,  and  did  com- 
mit things  worthy  of  stripes,  shall  be  beaten  with  few  stripes. 
For  unto  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  him  shall  much  be  re- 
quired, and  to  whom  men  have  committed  much,  of  him  they 
will  ask  the  more." 

In  order  then  to  the  adjustment  of  the  penalty  to  the  offence, 
it  is  necessary  to  estimate  properly  the  heinousness  as  well  as 
know  precisely  the  number  of  transgressions.  Again,  the  hei- 
nousness of  sin  is  affected  by  all  the  circumstances  attendant 
on  it,  among  which  not  the  least  important  is  the  state  of  the 
sinner's  mind.  To  estimate  it,  accordingly,  requires  a  thorough 
acquaintance  with  all  their  transgressions,  especially  with  the 
heart  of  the  individual. 

Now  since  forgiveness  is  the  entire  removal  of  all  guilt  or 
legal  liability  to  punishment,  and  punishment  is  proportion- 
ed to  the  number  and  natiii-e  and  aggravation  of  sins,  its 
exercise  presupposes  and  demands  a  perfect  knowledge  in  this 
respect.  He  who  dispenses  it,  must  in  an  especial  manner, 
be  able  to  fathom  the  heart,  to  know  the  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings and  purposes  of  the  sinner's  mind — io  give  the  three 
their  relative  place  and  weight  among  all  the  other  aggravating 
or  modifying  circumstances,  which  go  to  make  up  the  aggregate 
of  his  guilt.     Indeed,  he  must  search  the  heart  and  try  the  reins 


20 

of  the  children  of  men.  If  he  does  not  possess  all  this  know- 
ledge, he  may  fail  to  set  aside  the  claims  of  the  law  in  their 
full  extent,  which  remaining  still  on  the  head  of  the  sinner,  must 
bring  him  to  punishment,  i,  e.  he  is  not  forgiven. 

But  the  scriptures  explicitly  assert  that  this  kind  of  knowledge 
belon2;s  to  the  Omniscient  one  alone.  God  claims  it  as  his  sole 
prerogative  to  search  the  hearts,  so  as  to  intimate  guilt  and  to 
apportion  to  each  one  the  punishment  due  to  his  sins.  Hear  his 
own  lan£:ua2"e — "  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  thinujs,  and  des- 
perately  wickeJ,  who  can  know  it? 

"  I  tlie  Lord,  search  the  hearts,  I  try  the  reins,  even  to  give 
every  man  according  to  his  ways  and  according  to  the  fruit  ot 
his  doings." 

The  {iame  knowledge  is  claimed  by  Jesus  as  the  Eternal  Son 
of  God,  "and  all  the  churches  shall  know  that  I  am  he  which 
searcheth  the  reins  and  hearts ;  and  I  will  give  nnto  every  one 
of  you  according  to  his  works."' 

It  follows  therefore  that  the  exercise  of  forgiveness  must  al- 
ways be  attended  with  that  of  Omniscience. 

5.  Forgiveness  in  each  act  also  implies  the  exercise  of  Om- 
nipotence. 

The  pardon  of  sin,  which  in  itself  simply  denotes  a  change  of 
relation,  is  in  the  plan  of  salvation  revealed  in  the  Gospel  insepa- 
rably connected  with  a  radical  change  of  character.  He,  whose 
sins  are  forgiven  is  a  believer — "To  him,  i.  e.,  Jesus,  gave  all 
the  prophets  witness,  that  through  his  name,  whosoever  believ- 
eth  on  him,  shall  receive  remission  of  sins." 

Besides,  forgiveness  is  always  associated  in  the  Scriptures  with 
repentance.  Thus  our  Lord  told  his  disciples,  "That  repent- 
ance and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name,  be- 
ginning at  Jerusalem."  This  we  imagine  will  not  be  questioned 
for  a  moment.  And  if  so,  it  follows  that  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
must  be  associated  with  the  exercise  of  the  V)ower  to  give  faith 
and  repentance.  So  in  fact,  Peter  represented  it  to  the  Jewish 
council,  when,  speaking  of  Jesus,  he  said,  "  Ilim  hatli  God  ex- 
alted witli  liis  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour  for  to 
give  repentance  to  Israel  and  the  remission  of  sins." 

And  without  this  power  it  is  obvious  tliat  the  power  of  for- 
giviness  would  be  a  nullity. 


21 

But  repentance  and  faith  are  the  points  of  that  change  in  the 
heart  which  the  Scriptures  denote  by  the  terms  creation,  resur- 
rection, a  new  birth,  the  talcing  away  of  the  heart  of  stone  and 
giving  a  heart  of  flesh.  Such  terms,  if  they  have  any  meaning, 
must  denote  such  an  exertion  of  power  in  producing  this  change, 
as  is  implied  necessarily  in  bringing  all  things  at  first  out  of  no- 
thing, or  in  raising  the  dead  or  in  infusing  life  into  an  inanimate 
mass.  And  who  can  doubt  that  these  are  in  our  view  among  the 
most  unequivocal  acts  of  Omnipotence  ?  Who  doubts  that  the 
power  which  creates,  which  calls  the  dead  from  the  deep  slum- 
ber of  the  tomb,  which  brings  on  the  stage  of  life  thousands 
who  before  existed  not,  is  the  putting  forth  of  the  Almighty 
arm  ?  All  this  is  necessary  to  convey  the  precious  boon  of 
forgiveness  to  sinners,  and  hence  the  act  of  forgiveness  must  be 
associated  with  Omnipotence,  or  it  is  nothing  worth. 

II. THE  POWER  TO  FORGIVE  SINS. 

From  this  view  of  the  act  of  forgiveness,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
discern  the  nature  of  the  forgiving  power.  This  is  the  source 
whence  these  acts  proceed.  Each  act  of  forgiveness  is  but  an 
exercise — an  efflux  of  the  power  to  forgive.  The  acta  of  forgive- 
ness are  the  streams — the  power  to  forgive  is  the  fountain — and 
from  the  streams  we  may  go  up  to  the  fountain. 

If  then,  these  acts,  as  we  have  seen,  are  acts  of  supremacy — 
and  special  discretionary  acts  of  supremacy,  and  the  most  amia- 
ble acts  of  supremacy — if,  moreover,  these  acts  involve  the  ex- 
ercise, both  of  omniscience  and  omnipotence,  then  is  it  manifest 
that  the  power  of  which  they  are  but  the  mere  exercises,  must 
not  only  be  a  branch  of  the  supreme  power — but  of  that  supreme 
power  in  its  most  distinctive  aspect :  God  as  invested  with  it,  en- 
7""bes  himself  in  the  vestments  of  his  high  sovereignty,  and 
Comes  forth  to  the  view  of  all  his  creatures  in  the  most  awful 
and  imposing  manner — putting  his  hand  on  the  head  of  a  poor 
sinner,  turning  aside  from  his  head  the  just  sentence  of  his  holy 
law,  and  sending  him  forth  big  with  hope  on  the  pathway  of  life 
and  glory  and  immortality.  ISTever  is  he  so  much  an  Almighty 
Sovereign,  shining  forth  in  his  peerless  majesty  to  our  view,  as  at 
such  a  moment  and  in  such  an  act.  Never  does  he  tower  so  far 
above  all  the  creatures  of  his  hands,  and  leave  at  such  an  im- 


3-i 

measurable  distance  below  him,  Gabriel,  Michael,  and  all  tho 
lofty  ones  who  burn  and  shine  around  his  eternal  throne — as 
when  he  says  to  the  poor  condemned  ruined  sinner,  "Thy  sins 
are  forgiven  thee,  arise  and  go  in  peace."  Then  His  authoi'ity 
rises  above  the  law,  and  then  is  he  seen  holding  in  his  hands  tlie 
eternal  destiny  of  the  fallen  children  of  Adam. 

And  such  being  the  nature  of  this  power,  how  can  we  avoid 
the  conclusion  th.at  He  only  can  forgive  sins — that  he  reserves  it 
entirely  in  his  own  hands — that  he  will  not,  that  he  cannot  in- 
trust it  to  any  creature.  If  there  be  a  power  inseparable  from 
his  Godhead — one  in  which,  more  than  in  any  other,  he  ap 
pears  to  us  as  the  blessed  and  only  Potentate — the  Independent 
Sovereign,  wielding  tlie  eternal  destiny  of  his  creatures — it  must 
be  this.  If  the  exercise  of  this  power — which  is  an  exercise  of 
sovereignty,  involving  both  Omniscience  and  Omnipotence,  does 
not  define  the  Eternal  I  Am  to  our  view — then  may  we  utterly 
despair  of  ever  being  able  to  distinguish  him  from  his  creatures, 
and  live  in  constant  dread  of  rendering  to  a  finite  being  that 
homage  which  is  due  to  the  Infinite  One,  and  consequently,  of 
incurring  his  heaviest  displeasure.  But  no,  this  cannot  be.  To 
forgive,  is  the  prerogative  of  Jehovali — a  right  which  he  enjoys 
alone — a  right  belonging  to  Him  in  contradistinction  to  those 
which  belong  to  his  creatures.  "  I,  even  I,  am  He  that  blotteth 
out  thy  transgressions  for  my  name  sake." 

This  is  the  flower  of  his  crown — will  he  pluck  it  out  and  give 
it  to  another?  It  is  his  crown  itself — will  he  take  it  ofl'and  put 
it  on  another's  head?  Pharaoh  said  to  Joseph,  "Thou  shale  be 
over  my  house,  according  unto  thy  word  shall  all  m}'  people  be 
ruled ;  only  in  the  throne  will  I  be  greater  than  thou."  But  to 
bestow  the  power  of  forgiving  sins  oh  a  creature,  would  be  to 
do  more  than  Pharaoh  did  to  Joseph.  It  would  be  to  put  the 
crown  on  his  head,  and  make  him  greater  in  the  throne  than  Je- 
hovah. It  would  be  to  reserve  no  greater  power  to  himself. — 
And  will  God  give  his  glory  to  another  ?  Besides,  should  he  be 
willing  to  give  his  crown  to  another — what  head  could  wear  it  ? 
Could  Gabriel  ?  "  Could  he  read  tlie  heart  and  try  the  reins  V 
Could  he  new  create  the  soul?  Could  he  dispose  of  seats  in  glo- 
ry ?  No!  beneath  such  a  load,  he  M-ould  bow  down — sink — be 
crushed,  aye,  annihilated.     The  sceptre  then,  which  extends  mer- 


cy  to  the  sinner,  in  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins,  is  the  sceptre  to 
which  all  heaven  bows,  and  at  which  all  hell  quakes.  We  need 
not  fear  to  fall  down  before  Hini  who  stretches  it  out  to  us,  and 
worship  Him  as  the  Lord  God  Almighty,  which  liveth  and  reign- 
eth  forever. 

A. EXAMINATIONS  OF  THE  PRETENTIONS  TO  THIS  POWEE. 

We  think  we  have  established  our  point,  and  shown  the  pow- 
er under  consideration  to  be  in  its  very  nature  to  be  inalienable. 
It  now  only  remains  that  we  make  a  practical  application  of  the 
principles  involved  in  the  foregoing  discussion,  by  making  use 
of  them  to  examine  the  pretensions  which  have  been  put  forth 
to  the  possession  and  exercise  of  this  power.  These  pretentions, 
must  in  order  to  any  appearance  of  validity,  be  based  on  the 
assumption  that  this  power  is  delegated,  or,  that  the  power  still 
residing  in  God,  is  exercised  through  or  in  connexion  with  the 
agency  of  certain  individuals.  The  former  is  the  ground  on 
which  the  church  of  Rome  rests  her  hold  claims,  and  shuts  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  against  all  who  will  not  bow  to  her  dictats. 
The  other  is  that  preferred  by  liigli  churchmen,  who,  fearful  of 
proceeding  all  the  length  of  the  Mother  of  abominations,  are 
yet  desirous  of  retaining  in  their  creed  this  dogma  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, in  order  to  impart  dignity  and  importance  to  the  ministry. 
Let  us,  then,  examine  the  views  of  both  parties,  and  see  how  far 
they  are  sustained  in  them  by  Scripture  and  reason. 

I.     Is  this  power  ever  delegated  to  any  finite  being  ? 

This  question,  it  would  seem,  might  easily  be  answered  from  a 
right  view  of  the  nature  of  the  power.  This  has  been  the  burden 
of  all  our  preceding  discussion.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  accord- 
ing to  Bacon's  distinction,  a  branch  of  that  absolute  prerogative 
which  resides  in  the  Godhead,  according  to  his  private  will  and 
judgment.  We  have  seen,  further,  that  its  effect  in  every  case, 
necessarily  implies  the  presence  of  Omnipotence  and  Omnis- 
cience. On  both  these  grounds,  we  have  declared  it  to  be  in- 
communicable— incapable  of  being  transferred  to  any  mere  crea- 
ture, and  therefore  is  not  delegated  to  any  such,  because  it  can- 
not be.  But  let  us  suppose  for  a  moment  that  such  a  thing  were 
possible,  what  would  be  the  necessary  result?  Would  not  that 
being  become  tp.90  facio  supreme  ?     Supreme  power  delegated, 


u 

renders  him  to  wbom  it  is  delegated,  supreme.-  Omniscience 
delegated,  if  suchj^a  thing  be  conceivable,  invests  the  individual 
with  a  power  to  know  all  things.  Delegated  omnipotence  is 
omnipotence  still.;  And  can  such  powers  reside  in  a  creature  ? 
Is  not  the  Supreme  one  God  over  all,  blessed  forever?  Does 
not  the  exercise  of  omniscience  and  omnipotence,  flowing  from 
a  power  resident  in  Him  mark  out  the  High  and  Hoi}''  One, 
whom  all  are  bound  to  adore.  If  not,  how  shall  he  ever  claim 
our  allegiance  in  any  manifestation  he  may  or  can  make  of  him- 
self. The  absurdity  of  this  conclusion  shows  the  falsity  of  the 
supposition. 

But  we  will  here  be  confronted  by  the  passage  in  John  xx :  23, 
in  which  this  power  is  expressly  said  to  be  bestowed  on  the 
Apostles.  This  text  will  come  more  fully  under  consideration  iu 
a  subsequent  part  of  this  discourse.  For  the  present,  it  may  suf- 
fice to  say,  that  while  we  admit  such  to  be  its  most  obvious 
meaning,  yet  an  interpretation  so  much  at  variance  with  the 
views  every  where  advanced  in  the  Scriptures,  and  so  inconsist- 
ent with  right  reason,  cannot  be  sustained  unless  it  can  be  shown 
to  be  the  only  one  of  which  the  passage  is  susceptible.  And 
that  this  language  may  be  otherwise  understood,  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  a  great  multitude  of  pious  and  learned  men  have  so 
understood  it. 

II. IS  THIS  POWEK  EXERCISED  THROUGH  HUMAN  AGENCY  ? 

This  view  seems,  at  first,  to  be  free  from  all  the  objections 
arising  from  the  nature  ot  the  power  as  inalienable,  admitting 
that  God  only  can  forgive  sins,  and  claiming  simply  that  he  ex- 
ercises it  in  connexion  with  human  instrumentality — while  there- 
fore it  apparently  shields  its  advocates  from  the  danger  and  guilt 
involved  in  those  daring  pretentions,  it  leaves  them  certainly  in 
the  same  condition  to  all  practical  purposes ;  for  so  long  as  par- 
don can  come  only  through  the  ministry,  our  souls  are  in  their 
hands.  This  point,  accordingly,  demands  a  careful  examination. 
And  the  more  so,  too,  because  this  view,  it  is  contended,  is  sup- 
ported by  many  examples  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Thus, 
we  read  that  Moses  laid  his  hands  on  Joshua,  and  the  spirit  of 
wisdom  came  down  on  him.  But  it  should  be  noticed  that  Mo- 
ses acted  in  accoidance  with  a  special  revelation  of  God's  will 


35 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  take  lliee  Joshua,  the  son  of 
'Nun,  a  man  in  whom  is  the  Spirit,  and  lay  thine  hands  on  him'. 
And  thon  shalt  put  some  of  thine  honor  on  him.  tliat  all  the 

congregation   of  the   children   of  Israel   may   be  obedient." 

Again  Annanias  was  sent  to  Saul  in  Damascus,  that  he  mio-ht 
receive  his  eight,  and  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  An- 
nanias, too,  acted  in  obedience  to  a  special  disclosure  of  God's 
will  made  to  him,  and  this  fact  he  declared  to  Saul  at  the 
time,  and  so  in  all  similar  cases.  ISTow,  this  special  revela- 
tion we  regard  as  essentially  necessary.  For  how  otherwise 
wonld  it  be  possible  for  the  ministry  to  know  when  and  where, 
and  towards  whom,  God  would  be  pleased  to  put  forth  his  par- 
doning mercy  ?  Or  how  would  the  individual  to  whom  the  min- 
ister was  sent  know  that  his  sins  were  forgiven?  The  only 
ground  of  assurance  would  be  the  word  of  a  man,  a  ground  ut- 
terly insufficient,  unless  he  proved  himself  to  be  a  messenger 
from  God.  A  revelation  from  God  would  be  all  that  was  re- 
quisite, but  it  is  indispensable.  Each  case,  as  it  arises,  would  de- 
mand a  special  disclosure,  and  thus  the  minister  would  need  to 
receive  constantly,  new  revelations  of  the  mind  of  God.  But,  so 
far  as  we  know,  this  special  privilege  is  not  claimed  by  those 
with  whom  we  are  now  at  issue.  They  make  no  pretensions  to 
new  light  from  above,  or  to  plenary  inspiration.  They  are  ac- 
cordingly constrained  to  abandon  this  position,  if  they  are  ready 
to  submit  to  sound  argument. 

But,  perhaps,  we  may  be  told  that  there  is  no  need  of  a  spe- 
cial revelation,  a  general  one  is  all  that  is  sufficient ;  and  that  is 
given  us  in  the  sure  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth  for- 
ever. If  this  can  be  shown,  we  are  ready  to  submit  without  any 
further  debate.  Before,  however,  proceeding  to  examine  the 
Scripture  passages  supposed  to  maintain  their  views,  let  us  inquire 
what  is  meant  by  this  general  revelation,  or  by  a  general  revelation 
authorisiug  the  belief  that  God  exercises  this  power  through  or  in 
connexion  with  a  specified  human  agency.  If  this  were  so,  then 
God,  otherwise  at  liberty  to  pardon  whom  he  pleases,  binds  himself 
to  exercise  his  prerogative  only  through  a  certain  mediation  ;  of 
course  he  is  no  longer  free  to  exercise  his  pleasure  in  each  case. 
Pardon  is  no  more  according  to  his  private  will  and  judgment. 
The  will  of  man  becomes  essentially  necessar}'-,  and  thus  his 
declaration  to  Moses  no  longer  remains  true  :     "I  will  be  erra- 


26 

•cioTi-s  to  wliom  I  will  be  gracious,  and  will  sliow  mercy  on  whom 
I  will  show  mercy,"  Ex.  xxxiii,  19  ;  because  God  has  bound  him- 
self to  exercise  his  will  in  every  case  in  which  these,  his  ap- 
pointed instruments,  are  pleased  to  exercise  theirs.  It  is  not, 
then,  according  to  God's  good  pleasure,  but  according  to  that  of 
the  ministry.  Their  discretion  regulates  the  course  of  procedure. 
And  is  not  this  to  all  practical  purposes,  an  assumption  of  this 
power  ?  Is  there  not  a  delegation  of  it  to  the  ministry  ?  And, 
accordingly,  does  not  this  opinion  lie  open  to  all  the  objections 
■we  have  raised  against  the  first  opinion  ?  Most  assuredly  it  does^ 
in  our  judgment,  and  we  can  see  in  this  belief,  nothing  more 
?than  an  attempt  to  escape  these  objections  in  theory  while  they 
still  retain  all  their  force  in  practice.  We  regard,  then,  such  a 
binding  himself  up,  in  the  exercise  of  this  prerogative,  as  utter- 
ly inconsistent  with  its  nature,  and  impossible  in  the  nature  of 
the  case.  But  our  opponents  here  say  all  this  reasoning  is  set 
aside  by  the  plain  declarations  of  Scripture,  such  passages  as 
John  XX  :  23 :  "  Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted 
unto  them,  and  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained."* 

*  "  The  Holy  Catholic  Church  hath  in  all  ages,  referred  to  this  passage  as  a  com- 
inission  to  the  most  important  spiritual  functions.  It  was  ever  understood  to  mean 
what  its  language  hterally  imports.  It  is  the  explicit  sense  of  our  church  that  the 
power  of  remission  and  retention  is  as  permanent  as  the  ministry,  and  is  an  essential 
prerogative  of  the  sacerdotal  office.  Wherever  remission  of  sins  is  spoken  of,  we 
attach  but  one  idea  to  the  expression. — Dr.  Curtis'  Sermon,  pp.  5,  6. 

Nature  of  the  power  to  forgive  as  thus  bestowed  on  the  Ministry. 

This  is  not  an  independent  or  intrinsic  power,  *  *  *  *,  Such  power  belongs 
■to  God  alone.  It  must,  therefore,  be  a  ministerial  or  instrumental  power.  God  hav- 
ing appointed  an  order  of  men  in  the  world  to  accomplish  his  gracious  purposes  of 
mercy  to  mankind,  makes  them  his  agents  in  conferring  the  blessings  which  he  hag 
in  store  for  them.  lie  has  entrusted  to  them  certain  powers,  whose  proper  exercise  he 
■has  engaged  to  ratify. 

The  embassador  of  an  earthly  monarch,  in  treating  with  revolted  subjects,  may  be 
invested  with  the  power  of  settling  the  conditions  of  reconciliation,  as  well  as  of 
promising  to  all  who  will  submit  to  them.  Although  the  original  source  of  pardon  and 
its  final  ratification  are  with  the  sovereign,  yet,  if  his  agent  or  minister  has  kept  by 
the  articles  furnished  him,  he  has  so  far,  acted  in  place  of  his  sovereign,  who  will 
ratify  and  confirm  the  acts  of  his  minister,  as  much  as  if  done  by  himself.  •  *  • 
Through  the  ministry  as  the  agent  and  instrument,  are  conferred  all  these  benefits 
which  are  implied  in  the  ordinances.  These,  when  rightly  administered,  and  duly 
received,  are  as  effective  of  their  purpose,  as  if  administered  by  the  independent  or 
supreme  power.  *  »  *  »  (This  is  all  pretty  well ;  our  friend  ha.s  his  eyes  open 
while  speaking  directly  on  the  nature  of  this  power,  but  as  we  shall  sec,  be  waxes 
bolder  and  bolder  as  he  proceeds.) 


Matthew  xviii,  18 :  "  Verily  I  say  unto  jcm,  whatsoevep  je 
shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven  ;  and  whatsoever 
ye  shall  loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven."  Matt,  xvi, 
19 :  "  And  I  will  give  unto  thee  (i.  e.  Peter)  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  eartli 
shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on 
earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven." 

•  Before  proceeding  to  the  consideration  of  these  passages,  it 
may  be  well  to  remember  the  purpose  for  which  they  are  intro- 
duced by  our  opponents — not  to  prove  that  this  power  is  dele- 
gated to  the  ministry — this  is  repudiated  ;  but  to  show  that  God 
limits  his  own  exercise  of  it  by  the  discretion*  of  a  regularly  au- 
thorized ministry.  This  is  all  we  have  to  do  with  this.  Our 
business  is  simply  to  show  that  they  cannot  be  brought  forward 
to  substantiate  such  a  view.  u 

It  is  contended  that  these  three  passages  contain  the  same 
idea,  which  is  most  clearly,  because  literally,  expressed  by  John, 
and  therefore  are  to  be  interpreted  by  it.  If  so,  i.  e.,  if  we  are 
to  take  the  language  of  John  in  its  most  obvious  and  literal 
sense,  then  it  explicitly  teaches  that  the  Apostles  were  endowed 
with  the  plenary  power  of  forgiveness  at  discretion. 

Now  thig,  in  the  eyes  of  our  opponents  is  very  diflPerent  fromi 
the  idea  that  God  made  use  of  them  and  now  makes  use  of  the 
Christian  ministry  as  a  special  mediation  through  which  he  dis- 
penses pardon.     And  it  will  not  do  to  meet  all  the  formidable 
objections  which  are  raised  to   the  grant  of  any  such  power  to 

*  *  *  And  hence,  it  maybe  urged,  of  what  special  and  positive  value  ia  a  min- 
istry if  its  service  be  only  of  incidental  benefit,  such  as  not  ensues  from  the  sober  ac- 
tion of  any  man  whatever,  and  not  of  an  appointed  and  certain  efficacy  ;  one  to  which 
mankind,  encouraged  and  fortified  by  the  promises  of  God,  can  confidently  resort  as 
the  divinely  authorised  agent  for  dispensing  grace  to  the  soul.  (The  power  for 
which  Dr.  C.  contends  then,  whatever  may  be  its  nature,  must  be  such  as  to  engender 
in  an  intelligent  mind  the  conviction,  that  the  ministers  in  whom  it  resides,  or  through 
whom  it  flows,  are  so  authorised  to  dispense  pardon,  that  their  declaration  is  an  infalli- 
ble ground  of  assurance  of  pardon.)  If  the  ministry  be  an  appointed  office,  it  must 
have  an  authority  and  efficiency,  which  does  not  belong  to  those  who  are  not  invest- 
ed with  it.  This  authority,  though  delegated,  is  competent  to  all  the  purposes  for 
which  it  was  bestowed,  and  when  actually  given,  is  as  efficient  to  its  end  as  though  it 
were  original  and  independent.  A  true  authority  implies  either  an  inherent  or  ac- 
companying power,  which  is  competent  to  all  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  held. 
And,  although  a  delegated  authority  implies  a  derived  and  limited  power,  yet  that 
power  is  in  its  effects  precisely  the  same  as  if  original  or  exercised  by  the  supreme 
power. — Dr.  ^tcrtis^  Sermon,  j>,  9,  11,  12. 


28 

the  miniBtiy,  by  saying  that  all  that  is  meant  is,  that  God  makes 
nse  of  them  as  the  appointed  channel  through  which  he  himself 
conveys  pardon,  and  then  appeal  to  these  passages  in  proof  of 
the  doctrine  as  thus  explained.  Their  literal  import  is  that  the 
apostles  were  impowered  to  forgive  sins  at  their  discretion — and 
only  in  proof  of  such  a  pretence  can  they  in  their  literal  view 
be  fairly  urged.  They  may  thus  be  quoted  by  the  advocates  of 
the  claims  of  the  Romish  church,  and  are  thus  often  appealed  to 
in  defence  of  their  claims — but  none  who  are  not  prepared  to  go 
all  the  length  of  these  followers  of  the  Man  of  sin  have  any 
right  to  appeal  to  them.  Oar  reply  to  them  has  already  been 
given.  But  those  with  whom  we  are  at  issue  now  disclaim  such 
views.  These  contend  merely  that  the  ministry  are  the  agents  or 
instruments  through  whom  the  benefit  of  forgiveness  is  bestow- 
ed. Such  is  not  the  literal  import  of  the  passages  above  cited, 
which  are  consequently  qf  no  avail  to  establish  these  views. 

We  remark  further,  that  whatever  may  be  the  power  here 

granted,  it  cannot  be  proven  to  have  been  granted  to  the  apos- 
tles exclusively.     It  is  clear  from  John  that  the  occasion  on  whick 

these  words  were  spoken  was  on  the  evening  of  our  Lord's  re- 
surrection— when  the  disciples  were  gathered  together  in  Jeru- 
salem with  closed  doors  for  fear  of  the  Jews.  John  tells  us  tliat 
the  disciples  were  present  and  were  the  persons  addressed,  "Then 
were  the  disciples  glad  when  they  saw  the  Lord.  Then  said 
Jesus  to  them  again.  Peace  be  unto  you :  as  my  father  hath  sent 
me  even  so  send  I  you.  And  when  he  had  said  this,  he  breath- 
ed on  them,  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost;  whosesoever  sins  ye 
remit,"  <k:c.  Now  Luke  (24 :  33)  tells  us,  in  speaking  of  the  same 
occasion,  who  these  disciples  were — they  were  not  only  tlie  elev- 
en apostles,  but  they  that  were  with  them — i.  e,,  all  the  disci- 
ples— so  that  the  power  here  granted  was  not  granted  exclusive- 
ly to  the  ministry,  but  given  to  all  the  disciples.  The  passage 
then  can  with  no  show  of  fairness  be  alleged  in  proof  of  any 
special  ])ower  conferred  on  the  Romish  ministry. 

Once  more — granting  that  the  apostles  were  the  individuals 
here  addressed,  though  other  disciples  were  present,  and  that  to 
them  alone  was  this  power  given.  Yet  since  thisjiower  is  grant- 
ed or  promised  in  immediate  connexion  with  the  conferring  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  significantly  alluded  to  by  our  Lord's  breathing 
on  them,   it  cannot  Ije  bliown  that  it  was  not  granted  to  them  as 


29 

inspired  men  and  that  none  possess  it  but  those  who  have  such 
supernatural  gifts.  On  such  a  supposition,  we  see  no  difiiculty 
in  the  exercise  of  such  a  power  on  their  part.  For  being  en- 
dowed with  the  power  of  discerning  spirits,  they  could  infallibly 
distinguish  such  as  were  real  penitents  and  believers,  and  their 
authoritative  declaration  based  on  this  knowledge  would  be  only 
an  annunciation  of  what  God  had  already  done.  It  would  in 
reality  be  no  more  than  a  declaration  to  others  of  a  disclosure 
of  tlie  exercise  of  the  power  of  forgiveness  on  the  part  of  God 
made  to  them  by  the  direct  communication  of  the  Spirit.  But 
such  a  grant  as  this  avails  nothing  to  advance  the  claims  of  such 
as  now  pretend  to  exercise  the  power  of  forgiveness,  unless  they 
can  show  themselves  inspired  men.  So  that  the  text  viewed  in 
all  its  meanings,  in  no  one  of  them  answers  the  purpose  for  which 
it  has  so  often  and  so  exultingly  been  quoted.  And  this  being 
the  main  and  sole  prop  of  this  dogma,  we  are  warranted  to  con- 
clude that  there  is  no  revelation  made  in  the  Scriptures  of  any 
purpose  of  God  to  confer  pardon  through  the  ministry  as  a  spe- 
cial mediation.  I^Tone  in  which  they  are  warranted  to  say  to  a 
sinner,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee,  and  this  declaration  thereby 
be  an  evidence  that  his  sins  are  really  forgiven. 

But  we  contend  further,  that  the  pretensions,  which  men  set 
up  to  the  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins  are  not  only  false,  but 
blasphemous.  That  these  pretensions  put  forth  in  any  form  are 
high,  their  advocates  candidly  acknowledge.  It  is  for  the  avow- 
ed purpose  of  investing  themselves  and  the  ministry  in  general 
with  a  great  degree  of  authority,  and  giving  themselves  eleva- 
tion in  the  eyes  of  the  church,  that  they  are  put  forth.  They 
are,  however,  in  our  view,  not  only  high  and  arrogant,  but  blas- 
phemous. 

If  the  conclusion  reached  in  the  foregoing  discussion  be  cor- 
rect, then  it  has  been  shown  that  the  claims  advanced  are  such 
as  if  true,  demand  at  the  hands  of  all,  the  reverence  and  hom- 
age due  to  the  supreme  and  Mighty  One.  They  are  claims  of 
the  possession  of  the  highest  prerogative  of  supremacy,  and  of 
attributes  which  cannot  inhere  in  a  finite  being.  If  these  claims 
however,  are  false,  which  on  principles  laid  down  is  obviously 
so,  then  those  who  make  them  must  be  under  the  serious  charge 
of  a  bold  assumption  of  the  prerogative  of  God.  These  men  at- 
tempt to  mount  up  and  occupy  the  throne  of  God  and  profes- 


30 

sing  to  be  seated  there,  they  call  on  others  to  confess  their  sins 
unto  them  in  order  to  forgiveness.  Pretending  that  they  sit  upon 
the  throne  of  grace,  they  invite  us  to  come  boldly  to  them'  that 
we  may  obtain  mercy  and  find  grace  in  time  of  need.  And  alas  ! 
how  many  thousands  and  myriads  of  poor  ignorant  deluded 
souls  are  led  away  by  their  craft.  If  any  one  more  wise  say  to 
one  of  such  pretenders,  "  Who  can  forgive  sins  but  God  only  ?" 
is  there  one,  a  single  one  of  them,  that  can  say  to  a  palsied  man, 
"  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  unto  thine  house,"  and  the  pal- 
sied man  will  arise  and  do  so  ?  Is  there  one  who  can  substanti- 
ate his  claims  to  the  authority  to  forgive  sins  on  earth,  by  such 
or  a  similar  faith  ?  Jesus  did  not  hesitate  to  do  so — to  show  his 
authority  ;  and  surely  since  the  servant  is  not  above  his  Lord, 
his  legitimate  successors  should  not  hesitate  to  follow  his  exam- 
ple. 

But  we  repeat  it,  is  there  one  that  can  or  will  do  it.  If  so, 
where  is  he  ?  Let  him  come  forward  and  produce  his  strong 
claims.  Till  then  we  may  be  pardoned  for  replying  to  one  and 
all  of  such  claimants,  "  Jesus  we  Imow,  Paul  we  know,  but  who 
are  ye  ?" 

Did  I  ask  who  are  they  ?  Did  I  inquire  who  are  such  as  pre- 
tend to  say  to  a  poor  sinner,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee  and  ex- 
pect that  it  will  be  even  so  according  to  their  declaration  ?  Why 
need  I  ask  a  question  answered  long  ago,  to  guard  us  if  possible 
against  the  danger  of  ignorance  on  this  point?  Look  at  2nd 
Thess.  n.  We  read  of  that  man  of  sin,  the  son  of  perdition,  who 
opposeth  and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is  called  God,  or  that 
which  is  worshipped,  so  that  he  as  God  sitteth  in  the  temple  of 
God  showing  himself  that  he  is  God."  Can  we  fail  to  recognize 
in  these  features  the  likeness  of  these  pretenders?  Could  de- 
scription be  more  accurate  in  its  main  points  ?  Who  opposeth 
and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is  called  God  or  that  is  wor- 
shipped ?  Is  not  this  precisely  what  we  have  proved  to  be  the 
amount  of  their  pretentions  ?  Have  we  not  shown  that  they  ex- 
alt themselves  to  supremacy  in  its  highest  and  most  distinctive 
exercise  ?  So  that  he  as  God  sitteth  in  the  temple  of  God,  show- 
ing himself  that  he  is  God.  Ilave  we  not  also  shown  that  they 
show  themselves  to  be  God,  by  their  calling  on  men  to  seek  for- 
giveness at  their  hands,  occupying  places  of  trust  and  honor  in 
the  church  on  earth. 


31 

We  therefore  conclude  that  these  men  are  guilty  of  blasphe- 
my. Does  such  a  conclusion  startle  us?  Do  we  shrink  back 
and  pause  before  we  can  be  persuaded  that  men  could  be  car- 
ried so  far  in  their  zeal  to  maintain  their  influence  and  increase 
their  authority  ?  Why  should  we  ?  Has  not  the  apostle  ac- 
counted for  it?  He  declares  that  they  are  given  up  to  strong 
delusion,  to  believe  a  lie  that  they  may  all  be  damned,  and  this 
because  they  believed  not  the  truth,  but  take  pleasure  in  un- 
righteousness. 

Those  given  up  to  judicial  blindness,  may  proceed  to  any 
length  in  the  way  of  iniquity  and  absurdity.  And  surely  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  there  is  no  sin  which  God  would  be  more 
ready  to  punish  with  an  unsparing  hand  than  that  which  makes 
so  bold  an  onset  on  his  dearest  prerogative — as  one  which  would 
pluck  the  flower  from  his  crown. 

The  force  of  these  remarks  is  not  at  all  weakened  by  the  reply 
that  the  power  claimed  is  only  conditionally  effective.  If  by 
this  it  were  meant  that  the  ministry  possessed  only  the  power  of 
declaring  the  sins  of  the  true  penitent  forgiven,  then  all  objec- 
tions to  its  exercise  would  be  obviated.  But  that  such  is  not 
the  meaning  we  are  to  attach  to  these  terms,  is  obvious  from  the 
consideration  that  this  is  our  authority,  which  every  one  with 
the  Scriptures  in  his  hands,  is  at  liberty  to  exercise.  The  Scrip- 
tures declare  in  the  plainest  terms  that  he  who  repents  is  forgiv- 
en. Any  one,  then,  who  reads  and  understands,  can  declare 
upon  the  authority  of  God,  that  if  an  individual  is  a  true  penitent, 
his  sins  are  forgiven.  This,  however,  is  not  a  power  which  sat- 
isfies such  claimants.  It  does  not  invest  the  ministry  with  any 
peculiar  authority  above  others,  and  consequently,  does  not  an- 
swer the  purpose  for  which  such  pretensions  are  made.  The 
conditional  effectiveness  thus  turns  out  on  examination  to  be 
without  a  condition,  i.  e.  a  real  and  unconditional  effectiveness. 
The  reply  is  accordingly  a  mere  evasion,  and  the  charge  stands 
unreputed. 

But  it  becomes  not  only  those  who  advance  such  claims,  but 
those  who  are  disposed  to  hearken  to  them,  to  beware. — 
They  are  so  high,  so  daring,  so  far  above  all  claims,  ordinarily 
set  up  by  men — they  are  moreover  so  opposed  to  all  proper  views 
of  Scripture,  so  derogatory  to  God,  and  so  degrading  to  man — 
that  there   must  be  guilt  in  entertaining  them  for  a  moment. — 


32 

Tlie  poison  is  so  violent,  that  the  sliglitest  quantity  is  fatal.  The 
pretensions  should  at  once  be  resisted,  and  every  good  and  true 
man  is  bound  to  show  their  fallacy  and  impiety. 

Finally,  while  we  deny  this  prerogative  to  any  mere  man  or 
finite  being,  we  cheerfuUv  acknowledc:e  it  as  belonorinor  to  Jesus. 
W^e  claim  it  for  him  at  the  hands  of  all  others.  The  Son  of  Man 
hath  power  on  earth  io  forgive  sins,  lligli  and  sacred  as  is  tliis 
prerogative,  it  is  not  too  much  so  for  llim.  He  is  the  Son  of 
God — the  brightness  of  the  Fatiier's  glory,  and  the  express  im- 
age of  his  person.  He  is  clothed  with  every  divine  perfection, 
because  possessed  of  a  divine  nature.  In  this  wonderful  person, 
then,  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  this  God  and  man  in  two  distinct 
natures  and  one  person,  we  see  one  able  to  receive  and  wield 
this  power.  Besides,  as  the  one  Mediator  between  God  and 
man,  he  has  purchased  by  his  obedience  unto  death,  the  right  to 
give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  he  will.  It  is  his  righteousness 
which  makes  the  sinner  just.  It  is  his  blood  which  delivereth 
from  all  sins,  his  death  which  stands  in  the  stead  of  the  sinner. 
He  assumed  our  relation  to  the  law,  and  all  our  legal  responsi- 
bilities rests  on  him.  He  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the 
tree,  and  cancelled  the  guilt  of  every  believer. 

The  Father  has  accepted  him,  and  all  power  in  heaven  and 
earth  is  given  unto  him.  We  may  well,  therefore,  concede  to  his 
claims.  If  they  are  controverted,  he  can  easily  substantiate 
them  by  the  exhibition  of  these  very  divine  attributes  necessary 
to  the  exercise  of  the  power.  So  he  did  on  the  occasion  alluded 
to  in  our  text.  He  read  the  thoughts  of  the  heart.  "  Why  rea- 
son ye  thus  in  your  heart."  He  displayed  his  omnipotence. — 
Arise,  said  he  to  the  palsied  man,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  unto 
thine  house ;  and  he  arose  and  departed  to  his  house.  V>y  an 
effect,  which  was  palpable  to  all,  he  showed  that  he  could  pro- 
duce another  of  equal  difficulty — though  not  discernible  to  oth- 
ers. His  pretensions,  therefore,  were  not  false — his  claims  were 
valid.  All  must  know  that  he  had  power  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins. 

Let  lis  then,  my  friends,  as  poor  sinners,  come  to  Jesus  for 
pardon.  Let  us  receive  our  forgiveness  at  His  hands.  Those 
that  would  stand  between  us  and  him,  and  protfer  to  us  their  aid 
in  securing  forgiveness,  let  us  thrust  aside  and  refuse  their  aid. 
Let  us  know  that  while  Jesus  can  forgive,  none  other  can.  Then 
let  us  cry  with  broken  hearts  to  Him,  and  learn  from  experience 
that  Jesus  has  power  on  eartli  to  forgive  sins. 


(^  ^ 


ADDRESSES 


OF 


REV.  DR.  H.  M.  SCUDDER, 

OF  THE  REFORMED  DUTCH  CHURCH,  ARGOT,  INDIA; 

AND    OF 

REV.  DR.  RICHARD  FULLER, 

OF  THlE  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  BALTIMORE,  MD., 

AT  TUB  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  TRACT 
SOCIETY,  NEW  YORK,  MAY,  1860. 


REV.   DR.  SCUDDER'S  ADDRESS. 

The  earlier  compositions  belonging  to  the  Hindoo  literature  differ 
materially  from  tlie  later  ones  in  this,  that  thej  are  characterized  by 
extreme  conciseness  and  brevity.  And  there  is  a  maxim  among  the 
Pundits,  the  learned  men  of  India,  to  this  effect :  "  That  an  author 
rejoices  in  the  economizing  of  half  a  short  vowel,  as  much  as  he  does 
in  the  birth  of  a  son."  I  shall  try  to  conform  to  this  heathen  maxim — 
to  the  spirit  of  it — in  so  much,  at  least,  as  to  be  brief. 

Here  are  two  resolutions.  They  open  a  great  territory  of  subject 
before  me,  and  it  is  impossible  for  me  at  this  time  to  enter  upon  it  so 
as  to  do  justice  to  the  important  questions  involved.  But  there  is 
one  little  word  which  juts  out  like  a  promontory  at  the  end  of  the 
first  resolution.  It  is  the  word  abroad  ;  and  I  shall  take  it  as  my 
text.  What  is  the  Tract  Society,  and  what  is  its  work?  What  has 
it  wrought?  What  are  we  to  do  for  it?  These  are  seemingly  trite 
and  simple  questions  ;  but  they  are  worthy  of  our  consideration.  The 
work  of  the  Tract  Society,  as  I  understand  it,  is  this  :  It  is  a  channel- 


2  REV.  DR.  SCUDDER'S  ADDRESS, 

digger.  It  is  not  a  fountain  ;  it  does  not  originate  truth.  It  is  not 
Divine,  but  human.  It  is  not  a  creator,  but  a  wcirker.  The  Bible  is 
the  fountain — pure,  vivifying,  inexhaustible.  And  as  one  mode  of 
leading  out  its  waters  upon  the  heart  and  the  life  of  the  world,  the 
Tract  Society  digs  channels.  All  over' the  earth  it  has  opened  such 
channels.  Through  them  the  water  of  life  trickles  down  the  fair,  ver- 
dant slopes  of  our  mount  Zion,  and  by  them  the  living  stream  has 
permeated  heathen  deserts,  causing  beautiful  oases  to  spring  up  on 
surfaces  once  bleak  with  spiritual  barrenness. 

If  you  ask,  What  sort  of  a  work  is  the  Tract  Society  doing  in  the 
earth  ?  I  say.  It  is  a  noble  work,  I  have  been  sixteen  years  a  mis- 
sionary, and  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  what  the  Tract  So- 
ciety has  done  in  the  great  country  of  Hindostan,  A  sublime  work 
is  the  Tract  Society  performing  on  the  earth  !  Here  is  the  Bible,  a 
WORLD  of  spiritual  truth,  with  its  oceans,  its  towering  mountains,  its 
free,  glad-springing  rivers.  Over  the  whole  the  Tract  Society  moves — 
everywhere  a  worker.  In  the  ocean  of  Scripture  it  goes  down  like 
the  diver,  and  brings  up  pearls.  Into  the  bowels  of  the  mountains  of 
Scripture  it  pierces  like  the  miner,  and  brings  forth  ores  to  build,  and 
gems  to  deck  palaces  of  spiritual  beauty.  In  the  river-beds  of  Scrip- 
ture it  stoops  and  searches,  and  it  comes  up  the  banks  with  its  apron 
full  of  golden  sand.  Everywhere  it  is  a  worker  in  the  domains  of 
Scripture,  and  every  thing  that  it  collects  and  brings  forth  is  for  the 
renewal  and  the  garniture  of  souls,  immortal  souls.  Its  pearls  and 
gems  and  wisely  wrought  jewels,  what  are  they  but  adornments  of 
imperishable  loveliness  which  it  confers  upon  souls  ?  Truly,  this  is  a 
noble  work. 

What  has  the  Tract  Society  wrought  out  ?  I  may  claim  to  be  a 
competent  witness  in  regard  to  a  part  of  the  heathen  world.  Sixteen 
years  ago,  I  went  to  India,  I  returned  from  there  nearly  two  years 
ago,  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  knowing  what  assistance  it  has 
been  to  missionaries  there.  Has  not  the  Tract  Society  been  to  us  a 
helper?  Do  we  missionaric?  not  value  its  agencies?  How  shall  I 
describe  the  aids  and  supports  which  this  Tract  Society  has  extended 
to  me  as  a  missionary  ?  Why,  as  I  look  back,  they  seem  to  me  to 
stand  on  either  side  of  my  path  through  the  wilderness  of  heathenism 
hke  great  protecting  hedges  mantling  with  roses — walls  full  with 
beauty,  full  of  fragrance.  And  I  have  never  yet  met  the  missionary 
who  was  so  hopelessly  stupid  as  to  be  insensible  to  the  assistance 


REV.  DR.  SCUDDER'S  ADDRESS.  3 

rendered  us  by  this  Society ;  and  I  know  none  so  ungenerous  as  to 
withhold  the  aclsnowledgment.  I  ask  if  there  are  not  recorded  results 
which  justify  me  in  saying  what  I  have  said,  and  which  would  justify 
me  in  saying  a  great  deal  more  of  what  this  Society  has  accomplished 
in  foreign  lands.  Its  archives  are  the  records  of  Christian  churches, 
planted  in  many  a  spot  between  Cape  Comorin  and  the  grand  old 
Himalayas.  Go  through  the  annual  reports,  and  read  the  summaries 
of  missionary  witnesses.  Pass  from  year  to  year,  from  the  earlier 
and  feebler  efforts  to  the  maturities  of  wider  scope  and  enlarged 
labor  ;  and  gazing  back  from  the  platform  of  its  present  position,  add 
up  the  triumphs,  and  see  how  God  has  blessed  this  Tract  Society. 

There  is  a  tract  in  India  called  The  Jewel  Mine  of  Salvation.  I 
have  packed  up  my  things  ready  to  return  to  India,  else  I  would 
have  brought  a  copy  of  it  here.  It  exists  in  many  languages.  I  do  not 
know  who  composed  it,  but  probably  it  was  a  native.  It  has  been 
adopted  and  published  by  the  Society.  That  tract  has  a  marvellous 
history  already  in  India ;  it  has  worked  its  way  from  the  remotest 
north  down  to  the  extreme  south,  passing  from  language  to  language, 
perpetually  demonstrating  its  power  and  its  usefulness'.  Its  whole 
course  has  been  a  career  of  triumph.  Why,  its  footsteps  have  been 
marked  everywhere  with  flowers  of  peace  and  beauty  springing  up 
and  by  the  sides  of  the  paths  it  has  trodden  have  ripened  rich  clus- 
ters of  fruit,  and  triumphal  arches  have  spanned  the  highway  of  its 
advance.  That  tract  has  been  the  means  of  a  great  many  conver- 
sions. There  are  souls  to-night  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  whom  this 
tract  taught  where  to  find  wings  for  so  lofty  a  flight.  That  tract  is 
in  poetry,  for  the  Hindoos  are  very  fond  of  poetry.  An  assembly  can 
be  collected  in  the  streets  at  any  time  by  chanting.  I  will  chant  a 
verse  of  it  in  Telugu,  which  will  show  you  the  sweetness  of  one  of  the 
vernacular  languages  of  India.  [Dr.  Scudder  then  chanted  a  verse  in 
that  tongue.]  The  meaning  of  it  is  this  :  "  0  sirs  1  read  this  true, 
spotless  book  of  God ;  0  sirs !  discerning  its  truth  with  love,  take 
hold  upon  Jesus  Christ ;  thus,  0  sirs  !  at  last  go  clear  of  the  dreadful 
hell,  and  joyfully  reach  the  blest  abode  in  the  heavenly  world." 

Hindoos  have  actually  sung  away  their  prejudices  against  Chris- 
tianity, as  they  chanted  the  stanzas  of  this  tract,  and  as  the  truth 
stole  in  upon  their  hearts  and  consciences  through  its  mellifluous 
cadences.  The  stanzas  of  this  tract  have  been  heard  from  night- 
boats  as  they  floated  down  Gunga's  broad  tide.    They  have  been 


4  REV.  DR.  SCUDDER'S  ADDRESS. 

heard  beneath  the  banian's  shade  at  noontide,  issuing  from  the  lips  of 
the  resting  traveller,  who  found,  in  the  flowing  verse  and  the  loving 
thoughts,  the  solace  of  his  weariness.  And  don't  you  think,  as  the 
sweet  utterance  swelled  up  from  the  river  shore  and  from  under  the 
shady  palm-tree,  that  the  sympathizing  angels  came  to  the  very  brink 
of  the  battlements  above,  and  looked  over,  listening  to  the  strain,  and 
murmuring  back  their  happy  echo  ?  If  there  is  any  work  which  I 
thank  God  for  permitting  me  to  accomplish  in  India,  it  is  that  I  suc- 
ceeded in  introducing  that  tract  into  two  languages. 

That  will  live  on.  Yes,  its  star-rays  will  continue  to  beam  out 
upon  the  night  sky  of  India,  until,  sweetly  blending,  they  shall  lose 
themselves  in  the  all-eclipsing  effulgence  of  that  millennial  morn  which 
we  all  believe  is  speedily  coming.  It  has  often  been  to  me  a  sub- 
ject of  marvel,  that  a  little  tract  like  that  can  accomplish  such  won- 
derful results.  The  only  way  in  which  we  can  explain  it  is,  that  God 
energizes  it,  that  there  is  a  spiritual  power  which  God  gives  to  it. 
Take  a  haughty  Brahmin.  That  tract  flies  up  to  him  like  a  little 
bird,  and  flaps  its  wings  in  his  face.  He  gets  angry,  and  would  stran- 
gle it.  "But  it  expands  into  the  form  of  an  eagle  with  piercing  talons 
and  striking  beak,  and  that  Brahmin  and  all  his  superstitions  become 
in  its  presence  like  a  company  of  squeaking  chickens.  How  mighty 
the  power  of  a  God-commissioned  tract !  It  grapples  with  the  intel- 
lect of  a  Brahmin  ;  it  flings  that  man's  intellect  just  as  a  giant  would 
fling  a  stripling.  It  goes  down  into  the  dark  caverns  of  his  heart, 
where  a  knowledge  of  God  has  never  entered,  and  lets  in  rays  of  light 
from  the  Sun  of  righteousness,  lets  in  a  new  story — the  story  of  the 
Crucified  One — and  that  man's  heart  becomes  a  palace  in  which  God 
resides  ;  it  brings  all  his  thoughts  into  obedience  to  Christ,  and  sends 
him  out  to  preach  the  gospel.  What  a  marvel  is  this  I  There  is  none 
so  high  that  a  little  tract,  if  God  pleases  to  own  and  bless  it,  cannot 
bend  and  break  him  ;  and  there  is  none  so  low  that  it  cannot  lift  and 
bless  him,  no  matter  whether  he  be  a  sneering  Brahmin  on  the  banks 
of  the  Ganges,  or  the  dairyman'g  daughter  in  the  Western  world. 
The  same  tract  now  is  the  lightning-bolt  that  rives  the  proud,  uplifted, 
defying  crag,  and  now  it  is  the  dew  that  fills,  and  the  sunbeam  that 
quickens  a  withering  flower.  I  believe  we  shall  see  what  tracts  have 
done,  when  we  reach  the  shores  of  eternity. 

In  India  there  was  a  man  preaching  under  a  tree.  A  lad  about 
sixteen  years  of  age  asked  him  for  a  book.     The  missionary  pu 


REV.  DR.  SCUDDER'S  ADDRESS.  5 

tract  into  his  hand.  He  began  to  read.  He  read  a  page  or  so,  and 
came  to  the  word — that  wondrous  dissyllable  that  floats  upon  our 
banners,  Jesus — he  came  to  that  word,  and  he  looked  up  at  the  mis- 
sionary, and  said,  "This  may  be  the  very  book  that  my  father  got  a 
great  many  years  ago,"  "How  is  that?"  asked  the  missionary. 
"Why,"  says  he,  "my  father  lived  away  in  a  distant  town,  far  from 
any  white  man,  and  he  received  a  book  which  had  that  name  in  it, 
and  having  read  it,  after  some  months  he  threw  away  all  his  idols, 
and  shaped  his  course  according  to  it ;  and  when  he  died,  Jesus  was 
the  last  word  that  trembled  on  his  lips,"  Did  not  that  man  go  to 
heaven?  I  ask.  There  shall  be  wondrous  and  joyful  meetings  at 
the  last  day,  between  missionaries  who  have  labored  in  this  work, 
and  redeemed  souls  whose  redemption  they  never  knew  of  while 
they  were  on  the  earth.  In  that  day  a  man  will  come  up  to  another, 
and  say,  "Perhaps  you  don't  know  me,  but  I  know  you.  I  heard 
you  preach  in  such  a  year  on  the  earth,  and  you  gave  me  a  book, 
and  I  never  saw  a  white  man's  face  again.  But  the  book  was  the 
means  of  blessing  to  me  ;  it  was  the  one  plank  which  carried  me  to 
the  shore. "  Then  shall  those  two  fall  on  each  other's  neck,  and  kiss 
each  other  with  kisses  of  affection. 

But  we  can  trace  tracts  not  only  in  the  overmastering  power  which 
they  have  exerted  on  individuals,  but  we  can  point,  in  India,  to  a  new 
community  springing  up,  like  a  fresh  creation,  from  the  energy  of  a 
single  tract.  There  is  a  mission  in  India  which  grew  out  of  a  tract 
on  the  Decalogue.  It  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  wandering  priest.  He 
was  a  Brahmin  of  high  standing,  and  a  band  of  disciples  followed  him. 
They  had  abandoned  their  idolatry  ;  they  yearned  to  know  something 
better  than  was  furnished  in  the  foul  mythologies  of  Hindooism.  I 
have  been  asked,  in  this  country,  this  question  :  "Did  you  ever  meet 
a  heathen  who  seemed  really  to  seek  for  the  mercy  of  God,  and  for  the 
truth  ?"  I  think  these  men  come  as  near  to  it  as  any  I  ever  heard  of. 
If  a  man  shall  seek  for  God,  if  his  heart  shall  pant  after  truth  and  the 
love  of  God,  God  will  meet  that  yearning  of  his  heart.  He  will  call  a 
man  in  this  country  to  go  and  announce  salvation  through  Jesus  to 
him.  He  will  find  the  person  to  build  a  ship  to  carry  him.  These 
men  yearned  for  truth.  The  little  tract  containing  the  ten  command- 
ments met  them  ;  they  found  at  once  that  there  was  a  power  in  it. 
They  recognized  this  power,  just  as  the  ass  of  Balaam  recognized  the 
power  of  the  angel.     They  said,  "  Why,  we  have  never  seen  any  thing 


6  REV.  DR.  SCUDDER'S  ADDRESS. 

so-pure,  so  simple,  so  majestic,  so  far-reaching  as  this."  They  seized 
hold  of  it  like  a  sword.  They  pressed  it  against  others  ;  for  still  they 
roved  through  the  villages,  continuing  their  work  of  teaching,  though 
now  teaching  only  this.  They  found  that  they  had  a  two-edged 
sword,  and  it  cut  them,  as  well  as  others.  It  became  a  schoolmas- 
ter ;  it  led  them  up  into  the  temple  of  the  New  Testament,  and  intro- 
duced them  to  the  great  High-priest  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is 
God  over  all.  They  found  out  where  the  tract  came  from.  They 
went  and  got  a  Bible,  and  some  of  them  are  now  ministers,  and  nearly 
all  of  them  were  brought  into  the  church.  That  single  tract  was  the 
germ  of  a  whole  mission  in  India,  What  has  the  Tract  Society 
done — this  Tract  Society,  and  the  Tract  Society  of  England?  What 
have  they  done,  do  you  ask  ?  I  answer.  They  have  begun  to  span 
the  sky  of  heathenism  with  a  galaxy  in  which  the  stars  are  converted 
souls.  Since  I  left  India,  two  years  ago,  through  the  agency  of  a 
tract  of  this  Society,  a  movement  has  commenced  in  our  own  mis- 
sion, which  will,  I  trust,  result  in  the  organization  of  a  Christian 
church. 

Now,  what  shall  we  do  ?  Shall  we  go  back  ?  Never  I  ShallVe 
sit  down  ?  Never  !  Shall  we  deflect  ?  Never  !  What  shall  we  do  ? 
We  shall  go  forward,  no  matter  who  opposes.  The  true  Christian 
fears  neither  man  nor  devil.  If  a  man  is  a  true  Christian,  what  has 
he  to  fear  ?  Nothing.  His  watchword  is,  Forward  !  People  may 
tell  him,  "  This  is  a  feeble  agency.  Nothing  is  more  absurd  than  to 
try  to  convert  a  person  by  giving  him  a  tract  of  four  pages.  <<It 
appears  to  be  absurd,  and  worldly  people  sneer  at  it.  In  the  olden 
time,  on  the  walls  of  the  city  of  Jericho,  were  there  not  great  sneer- 
ings  and  hootings  among  the  people  as  they  talked,  and  said,  "  Who 
are  those  queer  fellows  blowing  rams'  horns  ?"  But  when  the  long 
blast  came  which  the  Lord  commanded,  did  not  the  city  fall  flat  ?  So 
it  will  be  with  these.  The  tracts  are  the  rams'  horns.  I  have  heard 
it  remarked,  that  "distributing  tracts  is  like  sowing  seed  on  the  sur- 
face of  a  river.  What  will  become  of  it?"  We  shall  admit  the 
figure,  for  do  Ave  not  read  of  one  river,  the  swelling  Nile,  with  its  roll- 
ing stores  of  liquid  wealth,  on  which  the  inhabitants  of  that  region 
do  cast  their  seed  ?  And  the  sound  of  the  rising,  rolling  wave — what 
is  it  ?  Is  it  not  the  prophecy  of  the  harvest-song  ?  From  the  bosom 
of  those  waters  there  shall  come  up  an  abundant  harvest,  and  the 
smell  of  sheaves. 


REV.  DR.  SCUDDER'S  ADDRESS.  7 

People  say,  again,  "Will  not  our  efforts  meet  with  opposition"? 
What  if  they  do  ?  Opposition  only  glorifies  the  gospel.  If  we  have 
got  to  overcome  opposition,  it  develops  our  muscles.  The  church, 
which  is  intrusted  with  the  dissemination  of  gospel  truth,  is  the  grand- 
est military  organization  in  the  universe.  Our  great  Captain  is  Jesus 
Christ,  the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords  ;  and  that  man  is  a  traitor 
in  the  camp,  who  will  not  follow  when  Christ  calls.  The  angels  them- 
selves delight  to  be  pioneers  and  camp-followers  to  the  church.  But 
let  him  beware  who  withstands  the  gospel,  for  it  will  upset  him.  A 
man  had  a  stream  that  ran  pleasantly  through  his  meadows,  "  I  will 
not  have  that  stream  any  longer, "  he  said.  So  he  got  together  stones, 
and  built  a  huge  dam.  The  stream  looked  at  him,  and  laughed  ;  and 
swelling  into  a  vast  lake,  it  burst  the  barrier,  and  its  accumulated 
waters  came  into  this  man's  premises  with  the  rush  and  roar  of  a 
giant,  and  that  man  and  his  chattels  were  never  heard  of  again.  That 
is  the  way  with  the  gospel.  The  natural  course  of  Christ's  gospel  is 
kind  and  gentle.  It  is  like  a  stream  purling  through  the  meadow, 
murmuring  hosannas  in  its  gentle  ripples  ;  but  let  a  man  meddle  with 
its  flow,  and  it  will  gather  up  its  forces,  rush  in  upon  him,  and  sweep 
him  away,  and  all  opposition,  with  a  roar  like  that  of  our  own  Niag- 
ara. God's  promises  are  the  foundation  upon  which  we  rest.  We 
don't  care  whether  man  opposes  or  not ;  we  trust  God  ;  his  word  is 
enough  for  us.  No  matter  how  great  the  storm  may  be,  we  ride  over 
the  angry  crests  in  the  life-boat  of  the  Divine  promise. 

How  can  we  carry  forward  the  work  of  God  ?  Every  individual 
must  work,  and  recognize  his  power  in  Christ's  kingdom.  For  my- 
self, am  I  not  bound  to  find  out  what  my  work  is,  to  gird  up  my 
loins  for  it,  to  shoe  my  feet,  to  have  the  sword  in  my  hand,  and  the 
helmet  on  my  brow  ?  So  are  you  to  work,  my  friends,  every  one  of 
you.  If  every  Christian  were  but  a  trimmed  lamp,  what  a  light 
would  be  shed  abroad  upon  the  world.  If  every  Christian  soul  wera 
a  tuned  instrument,  what  blessed  sounds  would  swell  the  universal 
strain.  What  glorious  results  we  should  then  behold.  Oh,  for  a 
heart  and  life  of  love  !  The  very  same  wind  that  howls  as  it  moves 
through  the  canebrake  and  the  dismal  swamp,  when  it  falls  upon  the 
strings  of  an  ^olian  harp  evokes  the  sweetest  melody.  The  unlov- 
ing heart  is  the  canebrake  and  the  swamp.  The  loving  heart  is  the 
jEolian  harp,  and  when  the  breath  of  God  touches  its  strings  there 
is  melody ;  the  life  of  that  man  on  the  earth  is  a  strain  of  music. 


8  REV.  DR-.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS. 

REV.   DR   FULLER'S   ADDRESS. 

Resolved,  That  tlie  national  and  catholic  spirit  of  the  American 
Tract  Society",  and  its  influence  upon  the  literature  of  the  land,  ought 
to  make  it  dear  to  every  Christian  and  patriot. 

It  is  Seneca  who  says,  that  the  sources  of  large  rivers  are  sacred, 
and  altars  should  be  built  there.  If  such  reverence  ought  to  be  given 
to  fountains  from  which  fertilizing  streams  issue,  how  ought  we  to 
venerate  those  great  institutions  which  enrich  and  bless  the  earth 
with  heavenly  truth  and  spiritual  influences. 

In  some  ages  and  nations,  the  danger  has  been  from  a  superstitious 
idolatry  of  every  thing  established.  And  this  bigotry  to  system  is 
certainly  most  deplorable,  as  it  dreads  all  improvement,  and  rivets  on 
the  mind  a  blind  devotion  to  falsehoods  in  religion  and  government, 
simply  because  they  are  hoary  with  age.  In  our  day,  and  in  this 
country,  there  is  little  peril  from  this  quarter.  The  most  reckless 
spirit  of  innovation  "raves,  recites,  and  maddens  round  the  land." 
Good  is  at  all  points  assailed  by  its  old  insidious  enemy.  Better. 
Nothing  is  so  venerable  that  it  escapes  the  restless  mania  for  tam- 
pering and  tinkering,  and  pulling  down  and  destroying.  And  yet 
it  seems  to  me  that  this  rage  for  disorganizing  would  find  itself 
rebuked,  if  people  would  only  study  the  past,  and  examine  the 
biographies  of  the  noble  men  who  founded  our  religious  and  civil 
institutions,  and  read  the  record  of  their  toils,  self-denials,  anxieties, 
prayers,  and  sacrifices. 

From  infancy  we  have  been  accustomed  to  our  national  privileges 
and  blessings,  and  we  feel  as  if  this  happy  union  of  states  had  always 
existed.  But  let  any  patriot  reflect  upon  the  condition  of  this  country 
before  we  had  a  Constitution.  Let  him  then  explore  the  history  of 
that  instrument.  Mr.  Webster  intended  to  write  such  a  history,  and 
Mr.  Curtis  of  Boston  has  nobly  fulfilled  the  task.  Let  him  begin  with 
the  first  convention  in  Annapolis,  to  which  only  five  states  sent  dele- 
gates. Then  let  him  mark  the  proceedings  in  the  body  which  adopted 
the  constitution,  and  the  conflicts  through  which  the  friends  of  this 
republic  had  to  pass,  before  the  ratification  of  that  glorious  charter. 
Let  any  man  who  loves  his  country  examine  these  pages  of  our  annals, 
and  he  will  acknowledge  that,  in  the  formation  of  the  general  gov- 


REV.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS.  9 

ernment,  a  victory  was  achieved  almost  as  arduous  and  sublime  as 
that  which  crowned  the  Revolutionary  campaigns  ;  and  he  will  con- 
fess, too,  how  hopeless  must  ever  be  the  effort  to  reunite  these  states, 
if — which  may  Heaven  forbid  ! — folly  and  wickedness  shall  succeed  in 
dividing  them. 

These  remarks  apply  to  our  great  religious  organizations.  We 
meet,  and  mingle  our  prayers  and  counsels,  and  exclaim,  "  Behold, 
how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in 
unity!"  And  we  feel  as  if  it  had  been  always  thus.  But  it  would 
touch  any  heart  to  hear,  from  those  who  were  present,  the  narrative  of 
the  inauguration  of  this  enterprise  and  of  others  kindred  to  it  :  how 
a  few  men  of  God  met ;  how  they  inquired  whether  it  was  possible 
that  those  who  had  so  long  been  arrayed  against  each  other  could 
unite  ;  how  they  knelt  down  and  prayed  for  light  and  harmony  ;  and 
how  they  wept  for  joy  at  the  great  triumph  of  Christian  love  over 
sectional  and  sectarian  littleness.  For  my  own  part,  as  I  have  heard 
those  apostolic  fathers  speak  of  these  things,  my  very  heart  has 
burned  within  me  ;  and  I  have  been  filled  with  amazement  and  sorrow, 
that  servants  of  Jesus,  north  or  south,  should  desire  to  enlist  such 
institutions  in  any  partisan  warfare. 

I  have  travelled  from  Baltimore  to  this  city  simply  that  I  might 
enjoy  the  pleasure  and  honor  of  being  with  you  to-night.  But  you  do 
not  wish  me,  I  am  sure,  to  pronounce  any  eulogium  on  the  American 
Tract  Society.  The  time  has  passed  when  that  could  be  needed. 
There  are,  however,  one  or  two  traits  in  its  character  which  ought  to 
make  it  dearer  and  dearer  to  us  every  year.  Upon  these  I  would  say 
something. 

And,  first,  this  Society  is  national — national,  not  sectional.  It  is 
more.  It  is  one  of  the  few  grand  conservators  and  bonds  of  union 
which  are  left  us.  Once,  all  our  influential  religious  denominations 
were  accustomed  to  have  their  respective  anniversaries,  when,  from 
every  part  of  the  land.  Christians  came  together,  glowing  with  love 
for  each  other  and  with  a  common  loyalty  to  Jesus,  And  I  need  not 
say  by  what  ties  of  love  our  national  Union  was  thus  compacted. 
This  harmony  of  feeling  and  action  has  been  for  ever  destroyed  in  the 
two  largest  religious  bodies  ;  and  unless  God  interposes,  it  will  soon 
be  violently  broken  up  in  all  our  religious  communions. 

[Dr.  Fuller  proceeded  to  ask  what  were  the  grounds  of  these  de- 


10  REV.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS. 

plorable  disruptions,  and  affirmed  that,  practically,  there  is  little  dif- 
ference between  good  men  on  any  of  the  questions  which  have  pro- 
duced these  fatal  mischiefs.  These  separations  of  those  who  once 
embraced  each  other  had  not  been  caused  by  any  alienation  in  the 
great  masses  of  the  denominations.  He  had  not  words  to  express 
his  sense  of  the  folly  and  madness  of  disunion.  He  loved  and  hon- 
ored this  Society  because  it  had  stood  nobly  aloof  from  these  unwor- 
thy bickerings  and  disputings.] 

If  we  deserve  to  be  American  citizens,  this  Society  will  engage 
our  warmest  interest  because  it  is  superior  to  all  sectional  feeling, 
because  it  recognizes  no  North,  no  South,  no  East,  no  West ;  but 
is,  in  its  entire  character,  in  all  its  objects,  wholly  American,  embrac- 
ing with  the  same  tender  solicitude,  every  portion  of  the  land. 

He  knows  little  of  man  who  can  make  light  of  the  religious  sen- 
timent implanted  in  our  nature.  It  is  the  deepest  and  most  uncon- 
trollable element  in  society  ;  and  like  those  central  fires  which  cailse 
earthquakes  and  convulsions,  it  can  subvert  the  foundations  of  any 
government.  There  is  no  danger  to  this  land,  there  is  no  principle  at 
work,  so  threatening  to  the  permanency  of  our  civil  institutions,  as  a 
misguided,  fanatical  spirit.  It  is,  in  itself,  a  desperately  mischievous 
thing  ;  insinuating  distrust  among  brethren  ;  sacrificing  the  noblest 
undertakings,  the  most  venerable  charities,  to  any  blind,  wild,  head- 
long, chimerical  impulse  which  inflames  the  passions.  And  poli- 
ticians are  ever  busy  stimulating  it,  for  their  own  ambitious,  mer- 
cenary purposes.  This  widespread  and  portentous  evil  can  be  coun- 
teracted only  by  a  sound,  healthy  religious  influence :  by  the  diffu- 
sion of  the  Gospel,  God's  remedy,  working  slowly — not  as  some  men 
wish  to  do  things  ;  for  as  the  smaller  the  insect  the  more  rapidly  it 
multiplies,  so  the  littler  the  man  the  greater  the  haste  in  which 
every  thing  must  be  done — working  slowly  as  God  ever  works,  but 
working  surely,  to  cure  all  the  maladies  which  afflict  our  fallen  race. 

Another  characteristic  of  this  association  endears  it  to  my  heart. 
It  is  CATHOLIC — catholic,  not  sectarian.  Its  motto  is,  Unity  in  things 
essential,  liberty  in  things  indifferent,  and  charity  in  all  things. 

Here,  again,  I  repeat,  in  effect,  what  I  said  as  to  the  proper  love 
of  one's  native  state.  If  we  are  sincere,  we  of  course  prefer  our  own 
communion.  Macaulay  and  others  have  laughed  at  simple  parson 
Adams,  who,  after  exhorting  his  hearers  to  become  religious,  added, 


EEY.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS.  11 

"And  when  I  say  religion,  I  mean  the  Christian  religion,  and  by  the 
Christian  religion,  I  mean  the  Protestant,  and  by  the  Protestant,  I 
mean  our  own."  The  proverb  says,  that  if  the  faults  of  the  best  men 
were  written  on  their  foreheads,  they  would  all  pull  their  hats  over 
their  eyes.  It  may  be  that  some  of  us  only  conceal  what  this  good 
man  was  frank  enough  to  proclaim.  However  that  may  be,  we  can 
all  comprehend  and  respect  his  sincerity.  But  when  a  man  loves 
only  his  own  church  ;  if  he  cannot  love  the  image  of  Christ  in  his 
brother,  wherever  he  finds  it,  and  on  whatever  metal  stamped,  why, 
then  I  question  whether  that  man's  heart  has  ever  been  changed  by 
the  Holy  Spirit.  A  man  who  loves  his  sect  more  than  the  image  of 
Christ  in  his  brother,  really  loves  his  sect  more  than  Christ,  and  loves 
himself  more  than  all. 

Those  who  refuse  to  cooperate  with  Christians  of  other  denomina- 
tions, because  there  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  forms  and  rites 
and  sacraments,  are  no  doubt  quite  sincere  ;  and  sincerity  is  so  rare 
a  virtue,  that  I  honor  it  wherever  I  see  it.  But  when  such  persons 
call  themselves  Protestants,  they  are  guilty  of  palpable  self-contra- 
diction ;  they  might  as  well  pretend  to  be  in  Rome  and  Geneva  at  the 
same  time.  On  this  subject  there  can  be  only  two  consistent  courses  : 
that  of  Rome,  which  forbids  all  cooperation  with  others,  because 
there  is  an  infallible  church  ;  and  that  of  Protestants  who  allow 
cooperation,  not  because  the  points  of  difference  are  unimportant — for 
nothing  is  unimportant  in  religion — but  because  they  do  not  recog- 
nize an  infallible  church. 

I  wish  this  principle  of  cooperation  were  more  distinctly  under- 
stood. It  is  impossible  for  those  who  have  the  spirit  of  Christ  not  to 
love  each  other.  I  appeal  to  all  such,  whether  at  the  period  of  their 
conversion  they  did  not  enter  into  the  apostle's  languag-e,  and  say, 
"  Grace  be  with  all  them  that  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity." 
But  a  scrupulous  conscience  may  afterwards  be  perplexed  by  the 
suggestion,  that  to  unite  with  others  is  a  compromise  of  the  truth. 
Let  it  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  is  no  surrender,  no  letting 
down  of  any  truth.  We  were  Christians  before  we  were  identified  with 
any  denomination  ;  and  our  union  in  this  Society  is  not  a  union  of 
denominations.  It  is  something  higher  and  nobler — it  is  a  Christian 
union.  We  meet  to  carry  forward  the  great  enterprise  of  salvation, 
to  diffuse  the  great  essential  doctrines  in  which  we  all  agree.     A  man, 


12  REV.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS. 

and  that  man  my  brother,  is  sinking  in  your  river.  I  hear  his  bub- 
bling cry,  and  leaping  into  a  boat,  I  look  around  for  some  one  to 
take  the  other  oar.  In  an  instant  a  noble  form  is  at  my  side,  ready 
to  bend  to  his  work.  But  I  first  catechize  him  :  Are  you  a  Baptist  ? 
Do  you  believe  in  immersion  ?  in  close  communion  ?  With  tears  he 
looks  up  to  me:  "  See,  see !"  he  cries,  "your  brother  is  perishing; 
let  us  save  him  before  it  is  too  late."  But  I  refuse.  He  does  not 
agree  with  me  on  the  doctrines  of  my  church,  and  I  prefer  that  my 
brother  should  sink  rather  than  cooperate  with  him. 

The  melancholy  reactions  of  Protestantism  described  by  Ranke, 
are  to  be  ascribed  mainly  to  these  baleful  animosities  ;  and  the  great 
solvent  of  our  sectarian  prejudices,  that  which  can  melt  and  fuse 
them  into  love,  can  cement  us  and  make  us  cohesive,  is  cooperation. 
I  am  weary  of  hearing  homilies  on  brotherly  love.  Let  us  work 
together,  let  us  fight  together,  and  we  shall  be  one — one  in  counsel, 
one  in  heart,  one  in  sacrifice  for  our  common  Redeemer.  The  parting 
prayer  of  Jesus  will  be  answered,  "  That  they  all  may  be  one,  that 
the  world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me."  At  the  battle  of  the 
Peiho  in  China,  about  a  year  ago.  Commodore  Tatnall  looked  on  for  a 
while  ;  but  as  the  war  waxed  more  fierce,  he  could  stand  it  no  longer  ; 
"  It  is  no  use,"  he  exclaimed,  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water !"  and 
dashed  into  the  fight.  And  you  remember  the  effect  of  his  conduct 
upon  England.  "Well  done,  Americans,"  they  cried  ;  "this  act  will 
do  more  to  bind  us  to  you  than  all  the  treaties  of  diplomatists."  We 
Baptists  are  sometimes  thought  to  be  rather  fond  of  water,  somewhat 
amphibious  in  our  creed.  But,  friends,  once  for  all  understand  us ; 
we  really  do  not  believe  that  the  pure  milk  of  the  word  is  water.  We 
feel  that  blood  is  thicker  than  water.  It  is  blood  which  draws  and 
unites  us  to  you.  And  this  hour,  when  we  stand  here  side  by  side, 
and  the  coming  campaigns — in  which,  wherever  the  conflict  shall  be 
closest,  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  shall  flash  fastest  and  brightest, 
we  pledge  ourselves  not  to  fail  you — these,  these  will  do  more  to 
unite  us  than  all  essays  and  plans  of  Christian  union  which  the  whole 
college  of  apostles  could  devise,  if  they  were  now  on  earth. 

One  other  excellence  of  this  Society  is  mentioned  in  the  resolution. 
I  refer  to  its  influence  upon  the  literature  of  odr  country.  May  I 
be  permitted  to  say  a  word  as  to  this? 

The  living  ministry  is  God's  ordinance  to  save  them  that  believe. 


REV.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS.  13 

Therefore  I  have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  give  the  press  prece- 
dence to  the  pulpit.  Still,  who  can  measure  the  power  which  the 
press  exerts  ?  An  ounce  of  lead  moulded  into  a  bullet  and  put  in 
a  Minnie  rifle,  with  a  little  black  powder  under  it,  will,  if  it  meet  no 
obstruction,  go  some  two  miles,  and  do  its  errand  very  sufficiently  upon 
a  man.  But  that  same  piece  of  lead,  cast  into  types,  and  put  into  one 
of  Hoe's  hghtning  presses,  with  a  little  black  liquid  over  it,  will  mock 
at  obstacles  and  do  its  mission,  not  on  one  man,  but  on  millions,  and 
though  mountains,  continents,  and  oceans  intervene. 

A  steam  printing-press  !  I  feel  something  like  awe  as  I  stand 
before  one  of  these  wonderful  engines.  It  seems  to  me  almost  as  if 
it  were  a  living  thing — one  of  Ezfekiel's  living  creatures,  "with  the 
hands  of  a  man,  and  the  noise  of  many  waters^  and  the  spirit  of  the 
living  creature  in  its  wheels."  How  it  strips  itself  for  its  work  1  It 
requires  no  nourishment,  knows  no  weariness,  but  on  it  toils,  with  a 
strength  which  would  mock  to  scorn  the  might  of  a  giant,  with  a 
clamor  as  if  it  would  shiver  in  pieces  any  substance  within  its  grasp. 
And  yet,  with  a  precision  and  delicacy  unattainable  by  human  mus- 
cles, it  receives  a  fabric  which  any  rude  touch  would  rend,  and 
impressing  upon  it,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  thoughts  which  it 
cost  the  most  active  mind  hours  to  compose,  flings  off  page  after 
page  to  instruct,  delight,  regenerate,  and  bless  the  world. 

None  of  us  appreciate  the  potency  of  the  press  as  an  agent  for 
the  diffusion  of  knowledge  over  the  land,  in  heavy  tomes,  in  journals, 
above  all,  in  the  daily  newspaper,  that  wonderful  modern  institution 
which  has  revolutionized  not  only  the  literary,  but  the  commercial 
and  the  political  woi'ld.  Constitutionally  there  are  only  two  estates 
in  Congress,  but  a  third  estate  has  sprung  up,  occupying  a  higher 
seat  than  members  either  of  the  Senate  or  House,  while  Congress  is 
in  session,  for  it  presides  in  the  galleries,  and  continuing  in  session 
after  Congress  has  adjourned,  in  session  all  the  year,  and  all  over  the 
country.  It  is  composed  of  the  representatives  of  the  press.  They 
form  and  shape  public  sentiment ;  and  at  this  day  when  the  world 
is,  as  never  before,  under  the  influence  of  public  opinion,  they  wield  a 
power  transcending  that  of  both  the  constitutional  bodies  combined. 

I  wish  I  had  time  to  say  something  of  the  singular  power  with 
which  the  press  has  invested  the  public  speaker.  We  talk  of  the 
grandeur  of  ancient  oratory,  but  how  far  did  its  influence  extend  ? 


14  REV.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS. 

Demostlienes  ascends  the  bema.  He  delivers  one  of  those  master- 
pieces of  eloquence  which  are  logic  on  fire.  He  ceases  ;  how  many 
has  he  reached  by  his  appeals  ?  Athens  was  a  little  place,  with  about 
one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  inhabitants.  Not  more  than  ten 
thousand  have  felt  the  burning  words  of  that  prince  of  orators.  Nor 
can  he  send  his  thoughts  abroad  through  the  land.  There  are  no 
reporters,  no  telegraphs  by  which  he  may  "  fulmine  over  Greece." 
How  different  the  potency  of  speech  now  !  In  Congress  or  in  Parlia- 
ment, the  audience  really  occupies  but  little  of  the  speaker's  concern. 
He  addresses  the  millions  who,  in  a  few  hours,  will  be  reading  and 
pondering  the  words  which  he  has  uttered. 

Think  of  the  power  which  the'  press  gives  to  written  words,  es- 
pecially the  word  of  .God.  Niebuhr  and  others  maintain  that  the 
ancient  writers  wrote  only  for  a  circle  of  friends,  to  whom  their 
books  were  read.  Indeed,  if  you  think  of  the  materials  for  writing 
which  they  possessed,  you  will  feel  that  their  readers  could  only  have 
been  a  select  few.  As  to  the  Scriptures,  we  find  more  than  one  epistle 
ending  with  a  charge  that  they  "be  read  to  tl>e  churches."  Contrast 
with  all  this  the  facility  now  furnished  by  printing,  when  the  compo- 
sitions of  a  writer  are,  in  a  few  days,  distributed  over  all  the  land, 
and  when  the  word  of  God  is  in  the  hands  of  the  poorest  child  on  the 
mountain  top,  of  the  savage  in  the  depth  of  the  forest. 

I  need  not  tell  you  how  diligently  the  enemies  of  God  have  availed 
themselves  of  these  facilities  ;  and  if  the  press  were  left  to  them,  we 
might  well,  with  the  German  legend,  ascribe  the  art  of  printing  to 
the  devil.  Even  our  most  respectable  booksellers  have  to  cater  to 
the  diseased  taste  for  pernicious  novels  ;  and  the  press  groans  inces- 
santly— Sunday  giving  it  no  rest — with  works  either  openly  or  secretly 
assailing  the  gospel.  It  would  be  an  unheard-of  delinquency  if  the 
church  did  not  make  this  powerful  engine  tributary  to  the  cause  of 
the  Redeemer.  And  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  vehicles  we 
employ  for  the  circulation  of  truth  are  the  most  effectual,  are  indeed 
the  only  effectual  antidote  to  the  poison  which  I  have  just  mentioned. 
But  I  have  already  detained  you  too  long,  and  may  not  dwell  upon 
this  topic. 

Let  me  only  remind  you,  that  wlien  Eternal  Wisdom  devised  a 
plan  to  counteract  the  evil  in  the  world,  it  selected  the  publication  of 
tracts  as  the  most  effective  expedient.     The  Bible  is  a  collection  of 


REV.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS.  15 

tracts  written  and  distributed  by  God.  When  the  period  had  come 
for  the  Great  Reformation,  God  disclosed  the  art  of  printing,  without 
which  Luther  would  have  failed.  And  when  Baxter,  Bunyan,  and 
Rutherford  were  shut  up  in  prison  for  the  truth,  with  what  sway 
did  they  not  employ  the  press.  A  man  may  not  preach,  he  is  not 
properly  ordained  to  preach.  Very  well.  But  he  may  write  a  book. 
For  this  no  priestly  manipulation  is  necessary.  If  God  have  laid 
his  hand  on  a  man's  head  and  heart,  he  may  write  a  book.  And 
a  man  who  writes  a  good  book  is  a  priest,  a  bishop,  an  archbishop, 
though  he  may  never  have  been  to  Rome,  or  Geneva,  or  Lambeth,  or 
Princeton,  or  Andover,  or  Brown  University.  What  would  the  Sun- 
day-school do  without  a  religious  press,  without  a  library  ?  In  our 
families  we  cannot  and  would  not  keep  our  children  from  reading  : 
what  a  blessing  it  is,  that  we  can  fill  our  houses  with  works  in  which 
the  noblest  intellect  and  most  refined  taste  have  been  consecrated  to 
Jesus.  The  individual  Christian  is  now  endowed  with  a  talent  to  do 
good  which  cannot  be  overestimated.  He  may  be  ignorant,  he  may 
not  be  able  to  say  a  word,  he  may  be  a  deaf  mute,  but  he  has  the  gift 
of  tongues,  he  can  speak  with  the  learning  and  eloquence  of  the  most 
illustrious  saints  who  have  adorned  the  church  and  pulpit ;  for  he 
can  distribute  their  best  productions. 

In  a  word,  and  not  to  weary  you  with  details,  look  at  the  masses 
of  busy,  restless  life  around  you — the  multitude  whose  steps  "beat 
the  murmuring  walks  like  autumn  rain."  Who  are  they  ?  Where 
are  their  homes?  How  fatal  are  the  influences  which  encircle  them  ! 
How  can  they  be  visited  by  the  ministries  of  salvation,  except 
through  your  agency  ?  There  is  no  accommodation  for  them  in  the 
churches,  and  thousands  would  not  enter  the  house  of  God  if  there 
were.  What  is  to  become  of  them  ?  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son  for  its  salvation.  Yet  they  will  perish, 
unless  you  go  to  their  rescue. 

But  they  must  not  perish.  "  Let  them  alone  ?"  No,  no  ;  God  for- 
bids that.  Jesus  does  not  say,  "  Let  them  alone  ;  wait  till  they  come 
to  you."  He  says,  "Go" — "Go,  preach  the  gospel."-  In -faith  let 
us  obey  that  command.  Men  and  brethren,  it  is  impossible  for  us 
to  look  back,  without  thanking  God  and  taking  courage.  Those 
who  prayed  and  wept  over  the  cradle  of  the  American  Tract  So- 
ciety never  anticipated  such  results  from  its  maturest  vigor  as  we 


16  REV.  DR.  FULLER'S  ADDRESS. 

have  already  witnessed.  They  never  even  hoped  that  it  would  scat- 
ter such  blessings  over  this  country ;  that  it  would  be  such  an  ally 
to  the  ministry  ;  that  it  would  infuse  such  strength  into  the  churches  ; 
that  it  would  so  penetrate  the  dark  places  of  our  land,  and  shed  light 
there  ;  that  it  would  take  the  emigrant  as  he  lands  upon  our  shores, 
and  lead  him  to  the  Cross  ;  that  it  would  plant  Sunday-schools  and 
churches  in  wildernesses  and  desert  places  ;  that  it  would  so  power- 
fully reinforce  the  cause  of  Temperance,  the  Bible,  the  Missionary 
enterprise  ;  that  from  Maine  to  Mexico,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pa- 
cific, in  the  valleys,  by  the  rivers,  all  along  the  mountain  ranges,  it 
would  comfort  the  afflicted,  enlighten  the  blind,  restore  the  fallen,  and 
lead  the  erring  in  the  paths  of  salvation. 

Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us.  Because  he  hath  been  our 
help,  therefore  under  the  shadow  of  his  wings  will  we  rejoice.  No 
weapon  formed  against  us  shall  prosper.  It  is  the  cause  of  Him, 
in  whose  hands  are  the  resources  of  the  Universe.  Let  us  but  have 
faith,  and  a  glorious  future  beckons  us  on.  Faith — faith  in  the 
human  soul,  which  is  endowed  with  powers  transcending  the  con- 
ceptions of  an  angel,  and  which,  though  fallen,  still  retains  a  dim 
longing  for  its  original  dignity  and  purity — faith  in  the  gospel,  which 
meets  all  the  profoundest  necessities  of  the  soul — faith,  above  all,  in 
Him  who  is,  this  night,  here  present,  to  animate  us  ;  who  is  saying, 
"Fear  not;  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world."  This  faith  is  all  we  need  to  cover  this  whole  continent,  to  fill 
the  whole  earth  with  the  trophies  of  redeeming  grace. 

Faith,  mighty  faith,  the  promise  eyes, 

And  looks  to  that  alone, 
Laughs  at  impossibilities, 

Ani  sayf,  It  shall  b3  done. 


er^T 


THE  CHIEF  EXCELLENCE  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER. 

A    SERMON 

PREACHED  BEFORE  THE  GRADUATING  CLASS 

OF 

Oxford   Female   College,   DST.   O. 

MAY  30th,  1860. 

BY 

ELDER    JAMES    McDANIEL,, 

OP 
FAYBTTEVILLE  N.  C. 

AND 
PUBLISHED  AT  THE  REQUEST 
OF 

THE  YOUNa  ladies:. 


FAYETTEVILLE,  N.  C. : 

A:  T.  BANES,  "  COURIER"  OFFICE  PRINT. 

1860. . 


SEIRMON. 


"  Favor  is  deceitful,  and  beauty  is  vain,  but  a  woman  that  feareth  the  Lord,  she 
shall  be  praised.  "  Proverbs  31 :  Chap,  30  Verse. 

More  than  two  thousand  and  eight  hundred  years  ago,  as  sacred  history 
informs  us,  there  hved  in  Palestine  a  Jewish  Lady  of  great  intelligence 
and  piety.  As  the  Moon,  though  not  equal  to  the  Sun,  goes  forth  along 
the  planetary  sphere  as  an  Orb  of  light,  possessing  and  exhibiting  great 
distinction  and  obvious  excellence,  so  passed  along  the  sphere  of  life  that 
illustrious  Jewess.  Understanding  the  true  and  chief  excellence  and 
adornments  of  female  character,  she  selected  them  as  her  theme  on  a  cer- 
tain occasion,  and  sung  in  living  and  immortal  notes  her  thoughts  upon 
this  subject  to  the  fair  Daughters  of  Jerusalem^and  those  who  should  suc- 
ceed them  in  every  age  to  the  end  of  time.  One  of  her  brilliant  senti- 
ments, which  is  worthy  to  engage  the  attention  of  every  lady,  is  that  pre- 
sented ia  the  Text.  '*  Favor  is  deceitful  and  beauty  is  vain ;  but  a  wo 
man  that  feareth  the  Lord,  she  shall  be  praised.  " 

My  aim,  dear  young  ladies,  in  addressing  you  on  this  occasion,  will  be 
more  your  permanent  profit  than  your  transient  entertainment.  While 
happiness  is  Heaven's  bestowment,  your  own,  and  that  of  many  others  will, 
in  a  great  measure,  depend  on  the  part  that  you  may  act  on  life's  grand, 
eventful  stage.  It  is  conceded  on  all  hands  to  be  a  solemn  and  important 
thing  to  die,  but  it  is  a  more  solemn  and  important  thing  to  live.  For,  the 
manner  of  life  is  the  seed,  from  Avhich  the  future  harvest  of  happiness 
or  wo::  will  eventually  grow.  "Be  not  deceived;  God  is  not  mocked,  for 
whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap.  For  he  that  soweth  to 
the  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption,  but  he  that  soweth  to  the 
spiritshall  of  the  spirit  reap  life  everlasting.  " 

rWoman's  act  at  first  affected  herself  and  all  the  world — a  kind  of  pre- 
sage of  v/hat  her  influence  would  be  in  every  age,  while  the  wheels  of  time 
shall  continue  to  run.  Much  more  depends  on  female  character  and  in- 
fluence than  is  generally  supposed  and  ,\inderstood.  There  is  quite  as 
much  truth  as  poetry  in  that  little  fainilifir  song,  in  which  woman  is  repre- 
sented as  ruling  the  lords  of  creation.  A-  distinguished  writer  has  advanc- 
ed the  idea  th.it  the  ladies  dctQvmixie  .nianncrs,  and  he  might  with  equal 


v^ 


propriety  have  added  destinies  tooA  Invested  with  a  magic  power,  wo- 
mau's  influence,  Hke  M'>ses'  rod,  achieves  wonders  in  the  production  of 
evil  or  good ;  it  fills  the  land  with  plagues  or  makes  the  beneficial  stream 
from  the  rock  to  flow  I 

Youth  is  the  appropriate  season  in  which  this  mighty  principle  is  to  be 
fitted  for  the  position  it  will  assume,  and  the  sphere  it  will  occupy.  This 
is  the  season  for  the  pursuit  and  attainment  of  those  elements  of  character^ 
which  will  aff'ord  a  blessedness  to  yourselves  and  toothers  Some  of  these 
I  propose  to  bring  to  your  notice  in  this  exercise,  f  My  theme  is 

THE  CHIEF  EXCELLENCE  OF  FEMALE  CHARACTER. 
"  Favor  is  deceitful  and  beauty  is  vain;  but  a  woman  that  feareth  tlie 
Lord,  she  shall  be  praised.  " 

In  discoursing  on  this  Text,  I  shall  consider, 

I.  Those  things  which  by  many  are  estimated,  yet  erroneously,  the  chief 
excellence  of  Female  Character.     And 

II,  Those  which  are  truly  and  positively  the  chief  excellence  of  Fe- 
male character. 

I.  Let  us  consider  those  things  which  are  by  many  estimated  as  the 
chief  excellences  of  Female  Character,  but  which  are  in  reality  only  Hrg((- 
tive  oxcellenees.  The  principal  of  these  are  the  two  specified  in  the  text 
— Favor  and  Beauti/. 

I.  The  first  is  Favor.  "  Favor  is  deceitful."  The  value  of  favor  de- 
pends on  the  source  from  Vt'hich  it  emenates.  To  have  the  admiration  of 
the  vain,  the  thoughtless,  the  worthless,  deserves  not  so  much  as  a  wish  or 
desire.  Such  favor  is  deceitfuL  And  yet  there  are  multitudes  of  both 
sexes  who  coA'et  this  vain  admiration  or  favor,  as  the  chief  excellence.  The 
means  of  attaining  it,  becomes  an  object  of  absorbing  interest  to  them.  One 
of  these  means  is  gaudy  and  extr^vagapt  equipage.  Hence  that  extrava- 
gance in  dress,  which  characterizes  the  present  age,  and  threatens  the 
happiness  of  millions  fjr  time  and  eternity.  Eighteen  hundred  years  ago, 
the  inspired  Apostle  uttered  a  prohibition. of  it,  in  all  the  elofjuence,  zeal  and 
pathos  of  an  ambassador  from  the  Heavens.  Hear  him — "  Whose  adorn- 
ing, let  it  not  be  that  outward  adorning  of  plaiting  of  the  hair,  and  wearing 
of  Gold,  or  putting  on  of  apparrel,  but  let  it  be  the  hidden  man  of  the 
heart,  in  that  which  is  not  corruptible,  cveji  the  ornament  of  a  meek  and 
quiet  spirit,  which  is  in  the  sight  of  God  of  great  price." 

A  stranger  as  I  am  to  nearly  all  who  are  present,  I  may  not  be  presum- 
ed to  charge  extravagance  to  any  of  this  audience  ;  yet,  if  the  charge  were 
made,  happy  for  all,  if  no  one  niigiit  require  an  artful,  eloquent,  and  im- 


5 


pasriioned  advocacy  to  secure  a  verdict  of  "  not  guilty,"  from  a  disGi'imina- 
ting  public.  If  no  youthful  mind  liere  present  is  affected  by  this  vanity 
of  such  general  and  wide-spreading  influence,  yet  the  danger  that  they 
may  become  the  victims  of  it,  is  suflieient  to  justify  a  friendly  warning. 

\     It  is  a  fact,  written  with  the  clearness  of  a  sunbeam  on  the  very  face  of 
society,  that  the   Milliner  and  Mautua-maker,  with  all  their  inventive 
genius,  can  scarcely  keep  up  with  the  ueuiauds  of  the  fair  sex,  for  varied 
fashions  and  new  styles  of  dress.     The  Manufacturers  of  fine  and  costly 
fabrics,  with  all  their  industry  and  energy,  can  hardly  furnish   new  and 
attractive  styles,  with  sufficient  rapidity  to  gratify  this  passion  for  mere  i 
display  or  vain  show.     And  all  this  is  to  gain  admiration  or  a  favor  which  i 
is  deccUjal.     In    many  instances  estates  are  wasted,  and  families  beggared 
by  this  extravagance  in  dress.     It  is  like  the  last  one  of  the  evils  which  i 
escaped  from  Pandora's  Box  to  afflict  the  world.     It  is  the  p/ay«te  of  the   ; 
present  age.     Vy'here  the  remedy  or  cure  of  it  is  to  be  found,  is  a  problem,  j 
the  solution  of  which  is  much  more  important  to  society  and  individuals,  ' 

ithan  was  that  which  srave  Archimedes  his  immortal  fame.    \ 

Scarcely  may  we  look  for  its  cure  to  our  Seminaries  of  learning.     Their 

■power  has  already  to  some  extent  been  tried,  and  it  has  proved  almost  as 
aminflucntial  as  an  astronomical  Lecture  delivered  to  the  raging  storm- 
The  Press,  that  mighty  power  which  creates  and  governs  political  worlds, 
has  made  some  eifort  at  reform  in  this  particular,  but  to  little  visible  effect. 
The  Pulpit  in  too  many  instances,  with  a  cuwariUce  or  negligence  unwor- 

•ihy  of  its  office,  has  winked  at  it  rather  than  attempted  to  covrect  it.    HuW 

vthe  evil  is  to  be  checked  or  removed  is  the  problem  to  be  solved. 
^  The  origin  of  this  extravagant  display  in  dress  is  hidden  in  the  remote 

..ages  of  antiquity.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  it  contributed 
much  to  induce  that  defection  whicb  brought  the  Delu™  on  the  world. 

•  Sacred  History  tells  us  that  tlie  Deluge  was  occasioned  by  that  sin  which; 

-originated  in  the  intermarriage  of  the  Sons  of  God  with  the  Daughters  of 
.men.     Attracted   it  is  believed  hj  this  vain  show,  this  gaudy  plumage  in 

'■which  the  Daughters  of  men  arrayed  themselves,  the  Sons  of  God  admired  , 

..them  and  sought  their    companionship.      An    union   was   thus  formed ' 

'Avhich  was  displeasing  to  God,  and  ultimately  resulted  in  the  ruin  of  men. 
That  admiration  or  favor  based  on  this  vain  display,  proved  deceltfal  and 
ended  in  ruin.  God  never  intended  that  men  should  be  allured  by  such 
vain  show,  and  he  has  uttered  his  prohibition  of  it  in  tones  so  audible  and 
impressive,  that  all  may  understand  it.     See  Isaaih  3  Chap  :  10-24^ 

Too  many  of  the  fair  ones  seem  to  think  that  if  they  can  succeed  in 
adorning  themselves  in  gaudy  and   costly  attire,  they  cannot  fail  of  admi- 


ration  and  favor.  Hence,  it  often  is  the  one  thinr/  needful  in  their  desire 
and  parsuit.  Their  great  solicitude  is  about  dress,  wherewith  they  shall 
be  clothed.  There  is  an  unhallowed  rivalry  among  many,  v»- ho  shall  excel 
in  artificial  adornment.  Like  Turped,  the  deluded  Roman  Maid,  they 
will  risk  their  very  soul  for  costly  attire.  But,  remember  well  that  the 
favor  that  is  won  by  this  means,  the  favor  that  is  based  upon  this  founda- 
tion, is  deceitful.  Not  even  all  who  run  into  this  extravagance  succeed 
in  the  attainment  of  that  admiration  or  favor  to  which  they  aspire.  Many 
of  those  extravagant  ones  live  year  after  yeae,  ignorant  ho»v  little  real 
worth  is  appropriated  to  them  by  the  wise  and  reflecting.  This  explains 
tlx;^  secret  hov,^  it  coiacs  to  pass  that  so  many  fine  Butterflies,  decked  with 
golden  adornment,  live  so  long  upon  the  wing  without  the  offer  of  a  hand 
or  home.  Some  it  is  true,  by  this  means  inveigle  and  ensnare  the  giddy 
and  the  vain  like  tliomselvcs,  and  the  conquest  proves  a  dire  calamity  to 
both.  For  such  ''  favor  is  deceitful.  "  flam  no  enemy  to  all  due  perso- 
nal adornment.  Nay,  I  encourage  it, — I  only  condemn  it  when  it  extends 
to  extravagance,  and  is  sought  as  a  basis  of  favqrj 

rX  second  basis  of  deceitful  favor  is  riches.  Worldly  wealth  exerts  a 
magic  power  in  the  creation  of  admiration  and  favor.  '*  The  rich  hath 
many  friends,  "  is  the  anuonncement  of  inspiration.  In  this  age,  almo.st 
the  first  question  concei'ning  a  young dady  is  this.  Is  she  rich  ?  And  it  it 
be  ascertained  that  she  has  ridiea,  she  rarJy  fails  to  have  admirers.  Favor 
will  spring  up  amid  riches,  or  the  anticipation  of  them,  as  a  plant  in  a  hot- 
bed. It  will  vrill  grow  up  as  quickly  as  did  Jonah's  gourd.  Pour  a^uan- 
tity  of  honey  on  the  ground,  and  if  there  be  any  flies  in  that  region,  many 
of  them  will  collect  thither.  There  are  many  flies  in  human  form,  which 
are  on  the  wing  and  scent  for  the  honey  of  wealth.  They  will  be  sure  to 
entertain  a  favor  towards  the  irealth  possessed,  whether  they  have  any 
love  for  the  possessor  or  not.  Many  a  lady  possessing  onl}'  a  common  por- 
tion of  Avealth  receives  the.oifer  of  the  hand  by  those,  who  Avould  spurn 
the  idea  of  making  such  ah  offer  were  it  not  for  vhe  property  she  has,  or 
which  is  nnticiplted  with  her.  The  morah  of  many  of  those  adnurers  are 
far  below  the  point  of  respectability,  aye,  thoy  are  sunk  to  infamj-J  And 
•tliere  arc  others  whose  indolence  and  prodigality  are  such  as  to  rcn- 
•der  them  but  little  more  deserving  than  the  dissipated.  The  favor  of  a 
h'.zy  spend-thrift,  who  lives  merely  to  cat  and  vrear,  and  waste,  is  nothing 
worth,  and  she  that  values  it  is  reckless  of  her  happiness.  Yet,  too  many 
iair  ones  never  think  seriously  about  the  morals,  motives  ov  j)ro2:)e7isities  of 
admirers.  They  assume  it  as  a  prospective  certainty,  that  under  their 
jjlasfcic  influence,  all  will  go  right.     They  fcllovr  such  delusive  dreams,  auul 


at  length  prove  by  bitter  experience  the  realities  of  unanticipated  decep- 
tion.    Such  "  favor  is  deceitful. 

I  2?  TTie'second  thing  estimated  by  many,  but  erroneously  so,  the  chief  ex- 
cellence of  female  character  is  "  heaufi/,  "  personal  beauty.  This  is  greatly 
admired,  and  often  ardently  sought.  Though  numbered  among  the  chief 
excellences  and  adornments  of  Female  character  by  the  masses,  yet  it  is 
really  not  one  of  them.  Vain  and  unworthy  persons  sometimes  attain  to 
positions  and  exert  an  influence  of  which  they  are  unworthy.  And  as  it 
is  with  persons,  so  it  ia  with  things — so  it  is  \ii.h. personal  beauty,  it  holds 
a  position  and  wields  an  influence  in  many  instances  beyound  its  desert.\ 
The  spirit  of  truth  has  announced  this  fact.  ''  Beauty  is  vain.  "  How 
generally  are  those  who  possess  it,  rendered  vain  by  it !  In  its  effects  it 
is  vain. 

Its  basis  is  vanity.  A  fq^er  or  some  attack  of  sickness  will  mar  it. 
Declining  health  will  be  sure  to  spoil  it.  But,  if  none  of  those  occur- 
rences whioh  are  so  common  in  our  wr  rid,  and  from  which  so  few  are  ex- 
empted, shall  befall  beauty ;  yet  time  or  age  will  certainly  bear  away  its 
charms,  and  consume  its  loveliness.     So  vain,  so  precarious  is  beauty. 

And  how  vain  is  beauty  when  it  constitutes  the  fouadation  of  admira- 
tion or  favor  !  How  deceptive  the  admiration  or  favor  that  rests  upon 
such  a  basis  as  beauty  1  When  the  foundation  is  removed,  what  becomes 
of  the  structure  that  rests  upon  it !  Could  the  grave,  where  now  sleeps 
many  an  once  heautifid  one,  be  penetrated  by  some  omnipotent  and  resusi- 
tative  voice,  and  the  departed  be  recalled  from  her  calm  repose  to  tell  the 
history  of  her  own  experience,  what  a  tale  she  would  tell  of  fugitive  affection!. 
What  an  account  she  would  give  of  the  sorrows  she  felt,  when  deserted  by 
that  affection  which  was  founded  only  on  personal  beauty  !  What  hours- 
and  days  did  she  spend  in  pensive  sadness,  when  her  beauty  had  departed, 
she  sat  as  in  the  Autumn  of  life,  and  sighed  in  strams  like  these — 

"  The  trees  of  the  forest 
Shall  blossom  again, 
And  the  song-bird  shall  carol 
A  soul-thrilling  strain  ; 

But  the  heart  fate  has  wasted 

No  Spring  shall  restore, 

And  its  songs  shall  be  joyful 

No  more — never  moi'e — never  more  ! 

At  length  the  flower  from  which  the  beauty  had  gone,  itself  drooped 
and  died,  and  dropt  from  its  Stem  to  mingle  with  tlie  ground !    Beauty 


r 


8 

1       II.     I  shall  dwell  no  longer  ontlie  negative  excellence  of  Female  char- 
acter, but  pass  to  consider — 

Those  which  are  truly  and  positively  the  chief  excellencies. 

"  A  woman  that  fearetli  the  Lord,  she  shall  be  praised."  The  fear  of 
»the  Lord  is  the  grand  embodyment  of  the  the  chief  excellence  of  charac- 
acter.  In  it  certain  mental  qualities  are  embraced.  I  will  specify  the 
chief  of  these :  ^ 

1.  The  first  is  r/ood  taste.':  And  the  fear  of  the  Lord  may  hardly  be 
regarded  as  existing  where  there  is  not  good  taste.  This  is  a  creature  of 
the  mind.  Circumstnnces,  associations,  and  Education  may,  and  do  exert 
a  considerable  iufluence  in  the  formation  of  taste.  But,  after  all,  its  pater- 
nity is  traceable  to  the  mind.  It  depends  upon  the  qualities  of  the  mind.. 
And  where  incorrect  taste  exists  and  prevails,  it  springs  mainly  from  some 
tiefection  in  the  mind.     It  is  of  mental  origin. 

There  are  multitudes  who  have  no  taste — no  relish  for  solid  and  useful 
reading,  or,  for  such  as  lays  the  mind  under  the  necessity  of  labor  to  di- 
gest what  is  read  They  have  no  relish  for  a  train  of  thought  which  re- 
quires diligence  to  pursue  and  comprehend  it.  They  dislike  all  solid  lite- 
rature. But,  they  are  delighted  with  a  mere  romance  or  story,  which  is 
wholly  fictitious,  and  from  which  not  a  solid  or  useful  idea  can  be  gleaned. 
Novels  of  the  least  merit  are  those  most  admired  by  them.  I  do  not 
condemn  all  literature  in  the  style  of  Novels — far  from  it.  There  are  some 
productions  witten  after  the  style  of  Novels,  which  contain  great  j9rzHc?}j/fs 
and  inculcate  great  morals.  1  speak  in  condemnation  rathel*  of  those 
works  which  discuss  no  important  principle,  and  contain  no  good  moral. 
These  corrupt  the  mind  and  spoil  its  good  qualities.,  I  never  knew  a  lady 
possessing  this  mere  dust-catching  mind,  that  ever 'did  much  for  her  own 
happiness,  or  that  of  others.  Such  give  poor  evidence  indeed  that  they  fear 
the  Lord  ! 

And  there  arc  scores  who  have  as  little  taste  or  relish  for  proper  conver- 
sation, as  for  solid  literature.  Their  themes  of  conversation  are  of  the 
most  trashy,  superficial,  penrile  kind.  Vain  remarks  about  others — foolish 
criticisms  on  dress,  or  persons — childish  sayings  make  up  their  conversa- 
tional store.  Not  unfrequcntly  a  lady  fi'om  a  Seminary  or  College,  will 
entertain  for  a  considerable  time,  one,  two,  or  more  gaping  gentry,  with  a 
conversation  abounding  in  trash  enough  to  sicken  twenty  persons  of  good 
taste. 

(  And  not  a  few  there  be,  who  have  no  taste,  or  relish  for  industrial  em- 
ployment. They  have  an  utter  aversion  to  the  use  of  the  scissors  and  needle. 
If  any  garment  is  to  be  made  or  mended,  a  seamstress  must  be  hired  for 


theAVork.  They  cannot  bear  the  idea  of  iiddressiug  themselves  to  the  care 
aud  task  of  keeping  the  house  in  proper  order.  And  iu  their  estimation, 
5t  would  be  an  everlasting  reproach,  enough  to  exile  them  from  the  state  of 
Jadysliip,  to  superintend  the  preparation  for  the  table  !  They  would  blush 
and  squirm,  your  speaker  knows  not  how  long,  for  it  to  be  said  that  they  had 
ever  catered  the  kitchen  and  superintended,  or  aided  iu  cooking  a  meal.: — 
They  are  satisfied  only  with  dressing  up  their  persons,  in  such  finery  as 
they  can  procure — receiving  and  ''paying  calls,"  and  acting  their  full  part 
iu  the  gossipping  of  the  day.  Now,  good  taste  is  the  very  reverse  of  all 
this.  It  is  the  fulfilment  ot  that  ApostoHc  advice,  given  in  the  4th  chap, 
ot  Phil,  and  8th  v :  ''  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  arc 
honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever- 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report,  if  there  be  any 
virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these  things  I" 

f  2.  The  second  mental  quality  included  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  is  dis- 
cretion. Many  an  one  does  not  consider  or  reflect  on  what  she  says  or 
does.  She  may  mean  no  harr--.  She  puts  on  certain  airs,  and  a  few  extra 
cants,  not  intending  by  these  things  in  any  wise  to  render  herself  ridicur 
lous,  or  vain;  but  only  presuming  this  to  be  the  means  of  attaining  an 
enviable  notoriety,  or  distinction.!  Yet,  the  result  is  the  very  opposite  of 
what  she  hopes  to  realize.  SEeoften  speaks  dispai-agingh'-  of  others  with- 
out proper  cause,  not  intending  thereby  to  do  harm  ;  but  it  is  the  sponta- 
neous effusion  of  a  mind  and  heart  stored  only  with  trash  and  vanity,  and 
"  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh."  She  does  not 
intend  by  such  a  couri3e  to  render  herself  odious,  and  make  her  society  a 
curse  to  community ;  but  such  is  the  result.  Indiscretion  is  a  characterT 
istic  too  frequently  found  in  character. 

Then  be  careful  to  avoid  all  those  airs  which  have  the  aspect  of  pride, 
vanity,  or  self-importance,  remembering  that  the  exhibition  of  them  is 
oflfensive  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  will  inev'tibly  lower,  instead  of  elevate 
you  m  the  judgment  and  esteem  of  all  the  discreet.  Never  indulge  in 
evil-speaking.  The  practice  is  not  only  odious,  but  it  is  also  corrupting. 
"  Evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners  " — you  will  thereby  corrupt 
your  own  minds,  and  contract  a  despicable  habit.  If  you  cannot  speak 
well  of  an  individual,  touch  his  or  her  character  but  tenderly,  except  where 
the  turpitude  existing  is  monstrous  and  manifest.  Remember  the  golden 
rule  _"  As  ye  would  that  others  should  dp  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto 
them." 

I     3.  The  third  mantaZ  quality  included  in  the  fear   of  the  Lord,  is  dcci&iarif 
.and  firi\incts.     Ho-sy  many  thei-is  arc  who  hav6  no  i^ind  of  their  b'wur-^ 


10 

Theirs  is  a  kiud  of  cowpifatiou,  a  little  from  one,  and  a  little  from  another,, 
until,  in  the  aggregate,  their  mind  is  a  perfect  medley.  They  have  no 
settled  principles — they  do  not  know  what  they  believe,  nor  why  they  be- 
lieve what  they  pretend  to  believe.  They  resemble  the  toif-^klff  which 
the  little  boy  has  built  and  rigged,  and  placed  upon  the  bosom  ot  the  pond, 
While  his  attention  is  for  a  moment  turned  away,  there  comes  a  puff  of 
wind  which  bears  it  out  upon  the  deep,  where  it  is  driven  and  tossed 
about  as  wind  and  wave  may  direct.  So  multitudes  have  no  decision  and 
firmness.  If  one  have  their  friendship  or  favor,  no  reliance  may  be  placed 
upon  it.  Their  affection  is  a  mere  cob-web.  They  are  children  o^  caprice 
or  whim.  And  each  one  of  such,  is  a  little  world  of  vchims  and  notions. 
They  can  bear  no  disappointment, — no  cross—  no  trial — no  opposition — no 
test  of  principle.  These  unavoidable  circumstances  with  which  they  meet, 
sour  them,  and  the  acidity  is  imparted  to  the  cup  of  life.  Thus  they 
act  a  part  like  the  man  in  Israel  who  gathered  green  gourds  for  pottage,, 
and  when  the  cofnpany  tasted  of  the  provision,  such  was  the  bitterness,  they^ 
exclaimed,  "  0,  thou  man  of  God,  there  is  Death  in  the  pot!" 

»  Bi^t^~^pire  to  decision  and  firmness.  Have  a  reason,  and  a  good  reason. 
ipr  what  you  beli/3ve  and  do.  Let  such  solidity  ever  characterize  your 
(^onduct  and  words,  that  all  acquainted  with  you.  will  feel  that  you  may 
be  trusted.  Be  ever  scrupulous  to  speak  the  truth,  in  all  things,  carefully 
avoiding  misrepresentation,  exaggeration,  and  mere  fabrication.  Deliberate. 
falsehood  on  the  lips  of  mail,  is  enough  to  make  humanity  weep  j  but  falser, 
hood  on  a  woman's  lips  is  enough  to  make  an  angel  blush  !  \ 

4.  The  fourth  men i'a?  quality  included  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  la  a  Jixed 
cleterminadon  to  merit  universal  admiration  hy  the  attainment  and  exhibir 
tion  of  all  those  excellencies  ichich  are  within  your  power.  There  are  many 
■who  demand  esteem  without  the  merit  of  it.     Their  claim  is  unjust,  and 
it  passes  uul^eeded.     However  much  you  may  merit  \iniversal  esteem, 
you  will  share  it   only  from  a  part.     If  you  become  the  embodiment  of  all 
those  excellencies  which  challenge  universal  esteem,  these  very  exellenT. 
cies  exhibited  by  you,  will  expose  you  to  the  dislike  of  some.     There  is 
an  irreconcilable  antagonism  between  virtue  and  vice.     Long  as  this  statQ. 
pf  things  shall  continue,  vice  will  look  on  virtue  with  that  malicious  jeal- 
ousy, with  which  the  fallen  spirit  of  old,  contemplated  the  happiness  of 
the  innocent  pair  in  Eden      But,  remember  if  ye  be  reproached  for  right, 
eousness  sake,  happy  are  ye  I     Aim  to  be  worthy  of  universal  esteem,  and 
if  there  be  those  from  whom  you  have  it  not,  account  that  failure  itself  a 
l^rilliant  in  your  character. 

6.  The  fifth  mental  quality  included  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  ie  mental 


n 

culture  Too  many  act  as  though  their  education  belonged  only  to  the  seaso'K 
of  their  association  with  the  College  or  Seminary.  When  they  graduate, 
all  their  text-books  are  laid  aside,  and  all  their  studies  given  up,  like  a 
dress  that  is  worn  out  and  of  no  further  use.  Two  years  aftewards  they 
know  but'little  of  all  that  they  have  been  for  years  laboring  to  acquire. — 
Like  tae  Prodigal,  they  waste  all  this  precious  store,  and  the  money,  the 
time,  and  labor  bestowed  to  acquire  it,  are  all  thrown  away  for  naught ! 
If  such  a  course  be  correct,  then  educational  facilities  are  a  mere  profitless 
farce  and  should  be  discarded.  But,  such  is  not  the  proper  course.  It 
involves  impropriety  and  guilt.  When  the  Institution  of  learning  is  left — - 
when  the  diploma  has  been  received,  the  work  of  education  has  but  just 
begun.  Instead  of  the  structure  being  finished  and  complete,  the /owiiAt- 
tion  is  Ohly  laid.  And  you  should  go  on  to  build  thereon,  endeavoring  to 
improve  and  enlarge  your  literai'y  temple.  For,  that  -tvill  be  k  source  of 
solid  advantage,  to  you,  when  worldly  vanities  shall  be 'of  noavarHj 

SECONDLY.  In  the  fear  of  the  LOrd  are  included  certain  qualitM 'of  the 
heart,  as  well  as  mind.  The  first  of  these  of  which  1  shall  speak,  is 
(jovernahle  temper.  There  is  a  very  great  diversity  in  the  temper  pos- 
sessed by  persons.  Some  unhappily  possess  a  temper  that  is  peculiarly 
excitable,  and  when  excited  it  is  hard  to  goteru  or  control.  No  one  may 
be  considered  at  fault  for  the  peculiarity  of  temper  possessed.  For,  there 
is  no  art  or  human  power  that  can  radically  change  the  teMper  of  any 
■  one.  Much,  however,  may  be  done  to  its  modification  and^g6vernffient.  And 
this  is  the  duty  and  work  of  the  individual,  "  He  that  is  slolvto  anger," 
aays  the  inspired  penman,  "  is  bettor  than  he  that  taketh  a  city.  "  The 
.proper  government  of  the  temper  is  a  grander  and  more  profitable  achive- 
ment,  than  the  conquest  of  of  a  wealthy  city,.  Ever  wtitch  oveif  .your  own 
temper,  and  keep  it  in  subjection,  for  if  you  neglect  this,  in  moments  of 
'excijcment  with  which  you  will  inevitably  meet,  you  will  say  or  do  things, 
the  review  of  which  afterwards  will  fill  your  soul  with  sorrow,  and  wash 
■your  cheeks  with  tears!     "Be  ye  angry  and  sin  not,  let  not  the  sun  gO 

down  upon  your  wrath.  " 

2.  The  second  quality  of  the  heart  included  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is 

a  disposition  of  kindness  The  society  of  this  world  is  mixed  with  many 
\vho  have  no  tender  sympathies — no  commiseration,  and  in  whose  consti- 
tution there  are  but  few,  if  any  of  the  elements  refered  to  in  that  beauti- 
ful Btauza  of  the  Poet — 

"  Teach  me  to  feci  another's  woe, 
To  hide  the  fault  I  see  ; 
That  mercy  I  to  others  show, 
That  merer  show  to  me  '' 


12 

InstOc'icl  of  being  dicposed  to  net  ii  part  like  the  Divinely  appointed 
Doves  that  ministered  to  the  suffering  I'rophct  of  the  Lord,  they  arc  more 
like  the  Vulture,  ever  seeking  the  defective  parts  of  character  on  which 
to  feed,  and  their  delight  is  to  rend  and  destroy.  But,  be  ye  ever  kindly 
nfFectioned.  Let  It  never  be  that  you  can  look  on  suffering  innocence 
^*■•ith  a  heart  unmoved.  Eehold  Salem's  Daughters  weeping  at  the  sight 
of  the  suffering  Savour,  and  seek  the  f^ame  kindly  di.'^position. 

You  Vi'ill  often  meet  with  those  on  whom  fortune  has  not  smiled  so 
propitiously  as  it  has  on  you.  They  have  sensibilities  as  well  as  you.  Look 
not  upon  them  with  coldness  and  scorn.  Often  will  you  meet  with  those, 
whom  death'  has  orphaned, — thej'  have  no  one  to  perform  towards  them  a 
tender  parent's  part.  From  the  grave  of  the  departed,  there  comes  the 
melting  voice  of  appeal  to  you,  sayiilg  :     "  Be  kind!   Oli  I  he  kind  to  the 

loved  ones  from  ivlioin  we  arc  parted." 

8.  The  third  quality  of  the  liearl  included  in  the  f.3ar  of  the  Lord  is 
an  inflexible  regard  to  the  di^tiwdixm  which  God  has  cifabliyhcd  hetween 
ritjhf  (Old  irronrj. 

To  know  tlie  rifiht  and  approve  it  too, 

T  o  know  the  n-roiui,  and  yet  the  wronjx  pursue 

irtvolves  fearful  guilt  and  danger  There  are  multitudes  who  are  easily 
Ted  to  dispose  of  the  distinction  between  viglit  and  vn-ong,  as  a  very  .small 
thing.  Thus  the  conscience  soon  becomes  so  torpid  and  insensible,  that 
they  find  but  little  difficulty  in  rejecting  the  good  and  embracing  the  evil 
in  almost  any  instance.  It  is  a  thing  of  vital  importance  to  possess  and 
maintain  a  nice  sensibility  touching  the  di-^tinction  between  right  and 
wrong.  It  must  never  be  compromised.  Rather  suffer  than  coilscnt  to) 
do  wliat  you  know  or  believe  to  be  wrong.  No  circumstances  can 
Justify  one  in  doing  wrong.  The  consequences  of  deliberately  doing 
so,  though  fancied  by  you  to  be  very  trifling,  or  insignificant,  may 
prove  your  utter  ruin.  '•  Remember  Lots  Wife  I  "  She  vainly  imagined 
the  consequence  of  so  apparently  small  a  thing  as  that  of  looking  back  to 
the  City  contrary  to  the  Divine  command,  would  be  harmless,  yet  it  bau.'s- 
ed  her  ruin.  Es:iu  sold  his  Lirth-rirjht  for  a  morsel  of  meat,  and  vainly 
fancied  in  so  doing,  that  he  was  exposing  himself  to  no  fearful  conse- 
quence ;  but  afterwards  ho  found  to  his  everlasting  regret,  that  the  act  so 
lightly  esteemed  by  him  had  caused  his  overthrow  !  And  the  scriptures 
point  to  his  example,  and  in  tones  of  solemn  warning  address  every  one. 
"Lest  there  be  any — profane  Esau,  who  for  one  morsel  of  meat  sold  hiu 
birth-right.  For  vc  know  how  that  afterwards  when  he  would  have  in- 
b'i^itcd  thV  hto'!*^n*:f,  h(»  VrW  it/cVtW,  for  h(?  fduinl  nrt  plaV-tJ  of  rtpMifjumJ 


IS 

thuiigli  lio  souglit  it  (.'ircfii'ilv  and  Vi'ith  tears.  "  "  Tlic  prudcat  man  for- 
seetli  the  evil  and  hidetli  himself,  but  the  simple.pass  on  and  are  puniohed." 

4.  The  fourth  quality  of  the  lurtrt  included  in  the  I'ear  of  the  Lord,  is 
humilifij.  Pride  and  haughtiness  are  too  often  found  in  human  character. 
A  proud  look  God  abhors.  "]?e  clothed  with  humility,"  is  Heaven's 
t^unsel  to  mortals.  Pride  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous,  if  not  the  most 
dangerous  quality  to  be  found  in  the  human  heart.  It  was  one  of  the 
principal  elements  in  that  sin  which  iM-eei^itatcd  an  Angel  of  hght  from 
.  his  glorious  abode  down  to  the  depths  of  iatenuinable  darkness  and  woe. — 
There  are  many  who  have  such  pride  of  heart  that  they  arc  ashamed  o^ 
Christ.  They  deem  it  a  (lishoum-  to  obey  all  his  commands.  They  glory 
i-u  that  which  is  their  shame.  Jlut,  no  one  lu-s  any  real  and  abiding 
honor  outside  of  obedience  to  Jesus  Christi  They  may  ha/e  wordly  honor 
in  disobedience,  but  this  is  the  very  essence  of  dishonor.  Such  honor  as 
is  gained  by  disobedience  to  God,  is  in  reality  deep  "ignominy.  It  will 
thus  appear  in  a  corning  day.'  "  Them  tliat  honor  me,  I  will  honor,  but 
tliej  that  despise  mj  fih.iU  bs  tightly  esteemed."  "  Learn  of  me,  for  I  am 
of  a  meek  and  lowly  mind,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls." 

■5.  The  fifth  quality  of  tlie  heart,  included  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  tlip, 
'(lispoxition  to  he  ra^eful.  ''■'•  To  dx5  good  and  communicate  forget  not,  for 
with  such  sacrifices  God  is  v»'ell  pleased.  "  Too  many  seem  to  think  that 
•'  their  only  business  in  this  world  is  to  live  unto  themselves.  They  reahze 
no  responsibility  in  relation  to  society.  ^Vhatevcr  may  be  the  wants  of 
the  world,  they  r'e'Srtgnize  no  responsibility  as  resting  on  them  to  perform 
any  part  in  the  silpply  of  those  wants  Ee  ye  fed  and  clothed  is  tlieir 
proclamation  to  the  needy,  brU  they  move  not  a  hand  or  a  finger  to  afi"ord 
the  necessary  relief.  They  are  mere  passengers  on  the  ship  of  life,  and 
they  have  but  little  concern  about  any  except  themselves,  and  a  few  nearly 
related  to  them.  But,  God  has  placed  you  in  this  world  to  be  useful,  to  be 
a  blessing  to  society.  Aim  therefore  to  properly  fulfil  this  design  of  your 
mission  into  this  mode  of  existence.  Aspire  to  such  a  life  that  when  your 
earthly  career  shall  close,  and  you  shall  pass  from  the  scenes  of  this  world, 
.your  usefulness  may  be  left  as  a  valuable  legacy  to  society  and  the  guar- 
dian Angel,  clad  in  the  garments  of  invisibility,  may  sit  upon  your  grave- 
stone and  sweetly  hymn  your  calm  repose  in  these  charming  strains, 

"  She  hath  done  what  she  could.  " 

G.  The  sixth  quality  of  the  heart  included  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  is 
Hitprr.ma  love  to  God.  This  includes  repentance  for  sin,  for  no  one  can 
love  God  truly  and  supremely  and  at  the  same  time  love  sin.  Deep  sor- 
•j-trw  fdr  filn  ftiid  hatred  td  it)  are  always  tbnnectbd  with  Icfi'^.t'o  Ci^cxl.  And 


u 

without   supreme  love  to  Q'jd,  the  auucipatiou   or  hope  of  salvation    itf 
another  world,  is  nothing  better  than  a  delusive  dream.     You  must  obtain 

A  renovated  li'oaff,- 

*'  The  Great  Redeemer's  throne, 

Where  only  ^Jhrist  is  heard  to  speak,  ^ 

Where  Jesus  reigns  alone. 

This  is  the  "  one  thing  needful.  "  Without  it  on  every  other  attain- 
ment and  possession,  this  inscription  must  be  written,  "  One  thing  thoU 
laclcest  yet  I  "  This  is  the  chief  of  all  the  amiable  qualities  that  embel- 
lish character.  This  is  the  ornament  of  the  most  accomplished  education-.- 
This  is  the  true  and  abiding  loveliness  and  worth  I  This  is  the  crowning 
excellence  of  the  heart !  Upon  it  Jehovah  looks  with  approving  smilea 
as  a  thing  "  of  great  price.  " 

'Tis  Religion  that  can  give, 
Sweetest  pleasures  while  we  live, 
'Tis  Religion  must  sap{)ly, 
Solid  comforts  when  we  die. 

After  Death  its  joys  will  be. 
Lasting  as  Eternity  ^ 
Be  the  living  God  nVJ'  friend, 
Then  my  bliss  will  never  eird  !  " 

'*Reme*hber  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  wllilc  the  evil 
days  conic  not,  nor  the  years  draw  nigh  when  thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no 
pleasure  ifei  them."  "  They  that  seek  me  early  thall  find  me.  "  "  Wilt 
thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto  me,  My  Father,  Thou  art  the  guide  of 
iny  youth  ?  " 

The  perfection  of  all  the  qualities  I  have  specified  is  practical  oi/eJii-nce 
and  consecration  td  God.  This  is  the  reliable  evidence  of  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.  "  This  is  the  love  of  God  that  we  keep  His  eommandmcMs.  " 
"Ye  are  my  friends,  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command  you."  "Why  call 
ye  me,  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the  things  which  I  say  ?  "  "  Xot  every  one 
that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  IleaVcn, 
but  he  that  doeth  the  icill  of  my  Father  which  is  in  Heaven.  "  "  If  «ny 
man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  saying.  "  Such  a  character  and  life  t^^ill 
hot  fail  to  be  rewarded  with  the  praise  of  all  the  good  on  earth,  and  with 
the  praise  of  God  Irt  the  world  to  come.  "  A  woman  ihai  fearcth  the  Lord 
she  shall  be  praincd.  " 

And  let  it  be  remembered  tliaf  this  roligioti  catitiot  be  sought  and  cm- 
^jraceal  tbo  soon. 


15 

It  is  the  chief  coHcern 

•  ffcv 

,0f  mortals  here  beiow. 

Make  hastQ  i^Q^,  0  make  haste  to  (secure  it !     !'  Boast  not  thyself  o^^ 
to-morrow,  for  thptji  kuowest  not  what  a  day  may  bving  forth  !  " 

I  would  not,  j^ijnecessarily  cause  you  one  painful  ^niiuotion.  But  it  is 
;neet  that  T  sl^oigld  here  remind  you  of  jtl^e  uncertainfij  of  life.  8ome  ,of . 
you,  in  all  probability  will  $11  a  youthful  grave.  Your  bri<i;htest  anticipa- 
tions will  be  suddenly  blighted  !  Your  Sun  will  go  down  ere  it  is  cv,en 
noon  !  The  Rose  that  bloomed  in  Spriog,  will  ere  the  close  of  Summer., 
be  faded  and  gone!  The  coffin — the  Aviuding-sheet — the  grave,  ere  long 
will  your  youthful  form  enclose!  Hardly  can  such  an  anticipation  be  realized 
without  a  starting  tear  I  Which  one  of  you  may  be  thus  destined  soon  to 
droop  and  fade,  and  die,  is  a  secret  unk^Q^wn !  Then  let  the  salutary  in- 
quiry come  home  to  every  heart,  in  all  it§  appropriate  solemnity — "  Lord 
is  it  I.  "  Must  I  soon  sickeB,  fade  an^  .d"^  •  •■  ^^  ye  therefore,  ready, 
for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not,  the  SoJ>  of  PiL,a,.Q  cometh.  " 

Haste  then  ye  fair  ones  (t<j  be  wis«, 
And  stay  not  for  the  morrows  sua  j 
The  longer  wisdom  you  despise, 
The  hJirder  is  she  to  be  won! 

"What  thy  hands  find    to  do,  do  it    with  thy   might,  for  .there  is  no 
work,  nor  device,  nor  wisdom  in  the  grave  whither  thou  goest. '' 

Or,  if  in  the  kind  providence  of  God,  you  may  be  spared  rpany  years, 
piety  will  do  you  no  harm,  but  it  will  be  a  source  of  unspeakable  advan- 
tage to  you.     "  Her  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  allher  paths  are, 
peace". 

No  mortal  doth  know,  what  Christ  will  bestow,. 
"What  light,  joy  and  comfort,  go  after  Him,  go,! 

Young  Ladies  of  the  Graduating  Class!  It  is  more  than  an  ordinary 
pleasure  to  see  you  encircled  with  your  literary  laurels,  procured  and 
woven  into  a  ever-greea  wreath  by  industry  and  diligence.  In  this  plea- 
sure. Teachers,  Parents,  Guardians  and  friends,  with  me  richly  share.  I 
congratulate  you  on  the  distinction  to  which  you  have  thus  attained.  You 
will  gq  forth  from  these  lovely  scenes  of  study,  bearing  the  precious  trea- 
sure of  joyous,  budding  hopes.  And  I  trust  that  your  pathway  in  life 
may  be  as  the  shining  light,  which  shines  more  and  more  unto  the  per- 
fect day.     W  herever  your  lot  iq  tl^e  prpyidence  of  God  may  be  cast,  re- 

meicber  the  counsels  I  have  given  yew.     And  let  each  one  diligently  strive 


to 

so  to  live,  that  wlri>n,  our  last  meeting;  shall  arrive — srav  uieetinu:  at  tliu 
grcnt  examination,  where  the  worthy  in  Christ's  grandest  of  all  Institu^ 
tions  shall  be  graduated  w^ith  everlasting  honorn,  it  may  Le  to  us  attended 
by  no  painful  emotion,  and  saddened  by  no  falling  tear  I 

Then  in  that  happy,  happy  huid, 
Well  no  more  take  the  parting  hand  ! 

My  beloved  Brother,  the  President  of  this  College,  and  the  Faculty 
associated  with  you  I  I  may  not  on  this  occasion,  withold  from  you  an  ex- 
pression of  my  congratulation.  The  pleasure  with  which  I  contemplato 
your  success  and  prosperity  is  not  feigned.  I  bestow  no  vain  flattery.  To 
speak  the  truth  of  persons,  and  tell  the  deeds  of  worth  whicli  they  have 
performed,  though  highly  commendatory  of  them,  is  not  flatter^'.  That  is 
flattery  where  commenda;iou  is  expressed  in  the  absence  of  men' f.  Your 
tvorhs  praise  you.  Your  labors  and  success  arc  panegyric,  printed  in 
brilliant  and  legible  characters.  Had  you  not  performed  your  duties  faith-, 
fully,  and  nobly  exerted  yourselves,  this  large  assemblage  of  young  ladies 
would  uot  have  graced  your  College  as  Pupils.  This  is  beyond  doubt,  the. 
most  brilliant  of  all  the  d^ys  in  the  history  of  this  Institution.  The  plea-. 
sure  which  you  doubtless  feel,  is  not  like  that  vain,  egotistic  joy  felt  by 
the  Chaldean  Monarch  when  he  looked  over  Babylon  in  the  zenith  of  its 
glory,  and  exclaimed,  "  Is  not  this  gTcat  Babylon  that  I  have  built  ?"  but 
it  is  the  nobler  pleasure  of  having  educated  young  ladies  to  be  ornaments 
to  society,  and  blessings  to  kindred  and  to  the  world.  Happy  President  I 
Happy  Teachers !  Happy  Pupils  !  may  each  returning  commencement  in 
this  College,  add  new  aiid  increased  happiness,  that  like  the  fostered  mul- 
tiflorous vine,  it  may  grow,  and  display  ils  countle.-^s  flowers  i^  all  their 
beauty  and  fragrance  to  the  admiration  of  all  around  I 

Within  the  i)ast  eleven  years,  how  changed  and  how  improved  is  the 
town  of  Oxford  I  Here  has  arisen  this  attractive  Institution,  now  teeming 
as  it  does,  with  scores  of  lovely  pupils.  Yonder  has  arisen,  on  the  liber- 
ality of  that  aocieqt  and  noble  Fraternity  of  Free  and  Accepted  3Iasons, 
another  beautiful  College,  where  will  be  educated  many  a  young  man  to, 
fill  positions  of  honor  and  usefulness  in  the  world.  Heaven  smile  with 
fostering  care  on  both  these  Institutions  of  learning,  that  as  in  Ede-ri's 
bowers,  plants  may  in  them  grow,  which  may  adorn  many  a  circle — bless, 
many  a  family,  aqd  impart  joy  to  n)auy  a  heart  I 

And  now  dear  yottng  ladies,  I  have  finished  the  t;aslx  which  your  parti-. 
ality  has  assigned  mq.  It  is  not  probable  that  I  shall  ever  preach  to  the. 
Pupils  of  this  (.College  again  assembled  as  to-night.  This  is  a  Valedictory 
in  reality,  as  well  as  in  name.  With  these  reflections,  affecting  to  my  own 
mind,  I  close  mv  discourse. 

May  the  God  of  all  grace  and  comfort,  abundantly  blpss  all  who  arc 
present  I 


p-"^ 


AMERICAN   CITIZENSHIP,  — ITS  EAULTS   AND   THEIR 

REMEDIES. 


A     SEKMON 


FOR   THE 


DAY    OF    NATIONAL    FAST, 


JANUARY  4,   1861, 


By   ALEXANDER   G.  MERCER,  D.D. 

ASSISTANT   MINISTER  OF   TRINITY   CHURCH   ON  THE   GREENE  FOUNDATION. 


PUBLISHED    BY    BEQUEST. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN  AND   COMPANY. 

1861. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1861,  by 

Little,  Brown  and  Company, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBKIDGE: 
PRINTED      BY     II.     O.      HOUGHTON. 


i 


J^v  ClXL    c^ci^l^   CIV    (^ZCt 


This  Sermon  -was  preached  only  in  part,  on  account  of  its 
length  and  the  indisposition  of  the  writer.  After  much  hes- 
itation he  has  consented  to  its  publication,  —  because  he  feels 
that  no  one  ought  from  vain  scruples,  to  withhold  any  oiFering 
of  word  or  act  from  the  cause  of  a  country  so  sorely  tried. 


SERMON. 


"  Humble  yourselves,  therefore,  under  the  mighty  hand  of  God,  that  he 
may  exalt  you  in  due  time."  —  1  Peter  5 :  6. 


However  clear  the  right  of  the  Pulpit  to  speak  of 
politics  wherever  the  word  Duty  can  describe  the  sub- 
ject, it  is  a  right  to  be  used  rarely  and  reluctantly,  as 
no  man's  discretion  is  refined  enough  to  save  it  from 
abuse.*  The  voice  of  the  preacher  ought  never  to  be 
associated  with  what  may  unfit  or  disable  it  as  a  public 
voice  of  relio:ion.  Yet  at  imminent  times  a  timid  silence 
is  immoral,  and  at  least  as  much  so  as  any  sort  of 
conscientious  speech.  For  myself,  placed  here  by  Provi- 
dence, and  not  by  my  own  seeking,  no  considerations  of 
a  personal  nature  shall  keep  me  silent,  or  modify  what 
I  think  is  fit  to  be  said.  Yet  addressing,  as  I  do,  many 
varieties  of  opinion,  and  as  I  must  be  found  in  opposition 
to  some,  —  perhaps  to  all,  —  I  trust  you  will  at  least 
remember  that  1  am  actuated,  as  I  surely  am,  by  none 
but  the  purest  motives. 

This  nation  stands  to-day  on  the  eve,  it  is  feared,  of 
great  changes  and  sorrows,  and  we  are  called  here  pub- 


licly  to  humiliate  ourselves  for  national  fault,  and  specially 
for  our  share  in  it.  Suddenly  a  clear  sky  is  covered 
with  gloom  and  fear.  A  strange  moment  has  come, 
when  a  rising  sun  seems  transferred  to  the  place  of 
its  setting.  It  is  worse  than  vain  to  make  hght  of 
such  a  crisis,  —  as  has  been  very  common  here.  Prosper- 
ous men  are  constitutionally  unable  to  realize  calamity. 
They  have  formed  the  habit  of  prosperity.  Our  national 
history  has  had  no  afflictions,  and  we  have  forgotten  the 
thing,  —  the  imagination  itself  has  become  incapacitated 
even  to  state  it.  And  though  our  just  fears  are  now,  of 
course,  increasing,  I  regret  to  say  that  they  do  not  grow 
at  the  rate  of  our  calamities.  There  is  a  fear  which  is 
the  most  crazy  and  paralyzing  of  passions,  —  but  there 
is  a  wise  and  deep  solicitude  which,  before  a  great  dis- 
aster, is  the  only  source  of  hope.  This  is  especially  true 
in  America.  For  one  great  danger  in  our  country  and 
government  is,  that  there  may  be  irreparable  ills  before 
the  real  nation  has  felt  and  spoken  out  its  wish,  and  so 
the  most  fatal  thing  now  is  serenity  and  easy  hope,  —  if 
danger  is  real.  But  is  it  real  I  —  You  have  the  evidence 
before  you. 

But  you  still  go  back  to  minor  experiences  of  past 
blusters,  and  so  measure  this  case ;  or  you  trust  to  a 
sense  of  self-interest  when  distresses  come.  I  think  you 
are  mistaken.  When  I  find  the  cool  and  thouohtful 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  governed  by  enlight- 
ened rules  of  prudence,  I  shall  be  prepared  to  expect 
a  little  of  that  sort  from  those  far  Southern  States.  No 
nation  has  yet  shown  itself  high  enough  for  ])rudence 
wlien  a  passion  begins  to  blow,  and  what  will  you  expect 


of  a  vivid  population  which  has  drawn  every  sort  of 
honor  and  of  interest  into  one  focal  point  of  fire  ! — and 
now  committed,  too,  —  formally  pledged, — and  conscious, 
moreover,  that  any  humiliating-  submission  must  annihi- 
late their  power.  I  think  there  is  no  retreat.  Why, 
the  Nation  grows  disrupted  at  the  heart !  The  growth 
of  heart-estrangement  within  sixty  days  makes  anything 
possible.  But  peaceable  dissolution  is  spoken  of,  and 
peaceable  arrangements  between  new  sovereignties.  A 
weak  fancy !  There  can  he  no  peace.  When  once  the 
Nation  is  gone,  and  the  national  feeling  all  lost,  there  will 
be  more  points  of  interest,  of  feeling,  to  arrange  between 
these  proud  States  than  have  arisen  between  all  the  great 
nations  of  Europe  during  modern  history.  They  will  be 
endless.  And  to  be  settled,  —  by  whom  \  by  friends 
turned  to  enemies,  "  hateful  and  hating  one  another." 
If  any  man  looks  at  this,  he  will  seem  to  himself  as 
one  standing  at  night  on  the  beach  of  an  unknown  sea, 
where  he  knows  there  is  before  him  a  wild  and  wasteful 
world,  but  it  is  so  dark  he  cannot  see.  He  hears,  how- 
ever, threats  of  wind  and  thunder,  and  the  sound  of  the 
rising  surge ;  and  if  there  be  a  gleam  upon  that  unknown 
sea,  it  looks  —  I  may  mistake  —  but  it  looks  red^  as 
of  human  blood. 

O  Thou,  who  knowest,  instruct  us,  that  on  this  day 
we  may  feel  and  know  where  we  are,  that  we  may 
humble  ourselves  under  thy  mighty  hand  ;  where  we 
have  done  amiss  lead  us  right  again ;  "  what  in  us  is 
dark,  illumine,  —  what  is  low,  raise  and  support!" 

The  solemn  duty  of  the  day,  then,  is  candidly  to  state 
to  ourselves  our  faults,  that  we  may  see  our  remedies. 


8 

Look  first  at  the  common  faults  of  the  nation,  for 
these  are  indirectly  —  nay,  directly  enough  —  the  causes 
of  our  present  disaster.  The  one  specially  which  lies 
farther  hack,  and  deeper  down  than  all  others,  I  think, 
is  the  one-sided  tendency  of  our  civilization.  I  suppose, 
my  friends,  that  the  whole  of  human  culture  lies  in  rev- 
erence and  freedom,  —  not  in  one  thing,  but  two  things 
—  God  and  the  individual  !  —  a  full  assertion  of  myself, 
rounded  and  circumscribed  by  that  which  is  above  my- 
self. History  has  really  but  these  two  ideas ;  all  events 
issue  out  of  them  and  falteringly  express  them  ;  and  the 
perfect  moment  of  history  will  only  come  when  these 
ideas  are  of  power  enough  to  bring  themselves  to  perfect 
birth.  Through  the  most  of  the  past  we  find  but  an 
abject  sinking  of  a  man's  self  before  something  differ- 
ent from  himself,  "  Gods  many  and  Lords  many,"  — 
whether  before  a  religion,  a  government,  a  leader,  — 
whether  before  the  might  of  nature,  or  a  man's  fel- 
lows, —  or  before  some  exaggerated  projection  of  a 
man's  fear  and  wonder. 

Our  modern  era  began  the  reverse  of  all  this,  and 
the  rights  and  power  of  the  individual  will  are  the  thing 
asserted  or  aimed  at  in  all  modern  changes  ;  my  right 
to  make  my  religion,  my  government,  my  leaders ;  my 
power  asserted  in  the  form  of  science  against  nature, 
or  asserted  against  society  in  the  form  of  the  political 
and  social  freedom  of  the  individual.  The  vigor  of  this 
impulse  has  within  a  few  years  made  this  amazing 
])roduct  —  American  success.  We  are  the  head  and  van- 
guard of  the  movement,  and  the  popular  cry  is  that  we 
can  never  have  enough  of  it.     We  began  so.      Our  Con- 


9 

stitution,  wise  as  the  instrument  is,  (a  wonderful  paper 
—  a  sort  of  cartoon  of  our  civilization,)  yet  sketches  the 
idea  of  a  State  without  a  religion,  or  a  God.  It  is  man 
all  through.  Now  who  does  not  know,  as  a  hrilliant 
Frenchman  has  said,  that  the  "  body  politic  is  a  tree, 
which  as  it  rises  finds  as  much  need  of  the  heavens 
as  of  the  earth," — that  "the  State  is  a  mysterious 
vessel  whose  anchor  is  in  heaven  ] "  Its  anchor  is 
there  or  nowhere.  The  idea  of  a  State,  as  of  one  man, 
is  that  of  a  divine  plant  which,  if  rooted  in  the  earth, 
lifts  its  head  and  bears  its  fruits  towards  heaven.  And 
its  permanence  and  power  is  in  the  proportion  that  it 
realizes  this  idea.  At  the  apex  of  the  great  dome  of 
the  Pantheon  in  Paris,  at  the  very  crown  of  this  tem- 
ple, representative  of  the  w^orks  and  glories  of  the  na- 
tion, you  may  see  grandly  depicted  the  French  Kings 
gathered  at  the  feet  of  a  heavenly  figure,  which  floats 
over  the  whole,  —  and  to  her,  on  bended  knee  and  in 
rapt  devotion,  they  offer  the  splendid  trophies  of  their 
history.  However  intended,  I  take  that  to  be  the  veri- 
table symbol  of  a  veritable  State.  But  our  State  pur- 
ports to  be  a  perfectly  ordered  earth,  with  no  heavenly 
figuie  overhead,  and  with  tlie  whole  sky  swept  off"  as 
if  it  were  a  superstitious  mist! 

So  through  all  our  civilization  the  human  side  has 
grown  too  large.  We  forget  that  liberty,  as  we  name 
it,  is  not  all,  but  that  reverence  is  no  less  a  name, — 
and  that  each  is  only  a  mistake  without  the  other.  We 
forget  that  tve  are  not  all,  but  that  there  is  something 
outside   which   ought    to   hem  us  in ;  —  we  forget   that 

whatever,  sets  free   binds  also,  and  with  higher  obliga- 

2 


10 

tions,  —  nobly  subjects  us  to  God,  to  man,  to  society, — 
not  that  we  may  be  trampled,  but  that  the  energies  of 
self-love  may  be  kept  within  the  limits  of  justice  and 
loyalty;  —  and,  in  short,  that  we  must  be  animated  by 
something  nobler  than  self-assertion,  I  mean  self-sub- 
jection. Let  us  not  then  pronounce  so  much  the  cant 
words  "  Freedom  "  —  "  Man  "  —  the  "  People,"  —  until 
we  learn  to  say  also  "God"  —  "Duty,"  —  or  even 
"  Honor "  and  "  Courtesy."  And  until  we  do  name 
these  with  a  full  heart,  the  People  are  but  a  mob, 
and  Freedom  nothinof  more  than  the  breaking-  of  the 
rope  that  binds  them. 

Then  again,  look  at  the  issues  of  this  inordinateness 
on  the  side  of  self,  when  joined  to  our  singular  advan- 
tages. In  this  magnificent  good  of  territory,  enter- 
prise, wealth,  peace,  enjoyment,  there  is  a  bait  which' 
has  caught  the  whole  heart  of  the  people,  and  made  out 
of  these  noble  gifts  the  seed-plot  of  devilish  fruits  to 
come.  For  out  of  this  a  decent  but  most  energetic  self- 
ishness has  risen  ;  so  that  not  public  care,  —  the  feeling 
and  sacrifices  of  a  worthy  citizen,  —  but  mere  selfish  neg- 
lect has  been  the  issue  of  our  freedom.  The  public  in- 
terest,—  the  noble  meaning  of  Commonwealth, — what 
do  we  know  of  that  ?  Or  if  there  be  some  interest  in 
public  events,  —  as  to  action^  (for  that  costs  something,) 
—  what  action  have  we  but  the  sinister  debauched  work 
of  the  politician  ^  Nay,  the  citizen,  too  often  hampered 
by  a  thousand  mean  fears,  does  not  even  give  his  coun- 
try his  real  thought  —  a  free  and  noble  speech  ;  —  the 
best  opinion  of  the  best,  fearlessly  given,  is  not  heard, 
while  rude  and  ])artisan  outcry  is  distinctly  given,  and 
is  called  the  public  voice. 


11 

So  of  all  our  public  life.  We  profess  to  have  in  our 
hands  the  costly  results  of  all  history,  those  great  ideas 
and  practices  which  are  "  the  precious  acquisitions  of 
humanity,"  —  and  they  have  been  reached  through  what 
troubles  1  —  and  yet  how  treated  !  Because  our  insig- 
nificance in  so  great  a  mass,  allows  each  man  little 
power,  he  feels  free  to  give  up  duty,  and  neglect  his 
part.  Or  if  he  weakly  tries  it,  he  becomes  disgusted 
nearly  at  once.  And  so  the  whole  is  handed  over  to 
the  politician,  (aided  by  his  organ,  the  press,)  whose 
trade  is  to  coin  the  neglect  and  the  folly  of  the  people 
for  his  own  pocket,  and  who  at  this  moment  makes 
husbandry  out  of  the  ruin  of  the  State,  and  perhaps 
the  blood  of  his  countrymen.  Under  his  shaping  of 
the  great  measures  and  topics,  even  this  greatest  of 
national  topics,  Slavery,  is  fashioned  but  to  strike  the 
eye  of  some  leading  faction,  —  an  eye  gloating  with 
party  and  sectional  avarice,  or  mad  with  some  hate 
and  fanaticism. 

Law-making,  the  noblest  function  of  humanity,  how 
has  it  been  done  1  Look  for  yourselves  at  the  law- 
makers —  the  laws  —  and  the  manufactories  of  shame 
(too  often!)  where  they  are  made  and  sold!  What  cor- 
ruption of  public  honor  in  all  its  offices, — that  sacred 
honor  on  which  all  rests,  on  whose  purity  is  staked  not 
only  property  and  rights,  but  in  the  last  issues  the 
national  life,  and  something  of  the  individual  soul  itself! 
—  for  who  can  say  to  what  extent  the  elevation  and 
efficiency  of  free  government  is  involved  not  only  with 
the  interests  but  inward  life  of  the  governed  ] 

Now  if  there  be  these   great   underlying  faults,  viz : 


Ij2 

an  enormity  of  conceited  will,  which  we  call  our  free- 
dom, and  an  enormity  of  selfish  grasp  on  outward  good, 
which  we  call  our  greatness,  what  is  our  want  and  our 
remedy  but  to  "humble  ourselves,"  —  to  know  God^  and 
law,  and  the  common  ivecd,  — to  know  them  in  our  rev- 
erence and  love  ^  And  if  it  does  not  please  us  to  do 
this,  I  assure  you  those  majestic  facts  need  but  to  retire  a 
little  further  off",  and  the  state  or  society  at  the  first  pres- 
sure which  strains  its  bond  will  break  asunder,  as  if  the 
bond  were  but  a  holiday-ribbon. 

We  want  loyalty,  not  to  a  man  or  a  party,  but  to  Law, 
to  the  State,  and  to  whatever  is  Higher ;  and  hence  we 
want  a  public  sentiment  as  to  the  duty  of  citizens, — a 
stern  public  judgment  as  to  that  class  of  men  who,  if 
ruin  is  preparing,  are  the  miners  !  We  want  a  public 
indignation  as  to  the  men  who,  from  the  caucuses  of  the 
bar-room  up  to  the  caucuses  of  senates  and  cabinets,  sit 
in  dark  council,  "  hatching  the  cockatrice's  eggs,  and 
weaving  the  spider's  web."  We  want  from  every  honest 
man,  from  pulpit,  press,  and  jjlatform,  a  broadside  and 
blaze  of  indignation  to  light  up  the  land  and  appal  every 
description  of  traitors,  \\'hether  they  are  striding  in  state 
to  the  public  gaze,  or  "  lurking  in  the  thievish  corners  of 
the  villages." 

But,  after  all,  let  not  you  and  me  shift  oft"  on  these  men 
the  making  of  ruin.  My  friends,  when  in  the  history  of 
Liberty  among  nations,  she  has  risen  from  the  dust  once 
more,  and  "  loosens  herself  from  the  bands  of  her  neck," 
and  lifts  her  form  shining  with  some  aspect  of  redemp- 
tion,—  who  stops  her,  and  brings  her  mouth  to  the  dust 
again?     Kings,  priests,  demagogues?     Never  anywhere 


13 

—  but  here,  never,  never!  It  is  the  lookers-on,  —  it  is 
you,  the  people,  who  will  think  a  little  longer  on  the 
matter  and  who  will  let  others  act.  I  tell  you  that  the 
men  too  lukewarm  to  seek  out  the  right  of  the  case, 
too  selfishly  dull  to  see  it,  too  weak  to  decide  upon  it,  — 
the  blood  of  the  ruined  cause  lies  upon  them  !  Upon 
them  ! 

So  much  as  to  our  common  faults.     Next  are  those  of 
the  two  great  sections  in  respect  to  each  other. 

These  are  in  some  part  rather  misfortunes  than  faults, 

—  alienations  prompted  by  such  a  difference  and  for- 
eignness  as  Slavery  and  Freedom  ;  and  allowed  from  the 
ignorance  of  distance.  We  in  this  place  and  age  hoped 
that  the  vastness  of  area  which  hitherto  had  been  a  clear 
cause  of  weakness  and  dissolution  in  great  empires,  had 
here  become  a  different  fact.  For  now,  as  it  to  fit  us  for 
this  largeness,  we  had  gained  commensurate  organs  of 
intercourse,  —  a  new  motion  that  narrowed  the  width  of 
the  continent  to  a  strip,  and  a  new  power  of  speech 
that  flashed  like  lightning  out  of  the  east  into  the  west. 
We  supposed  that  these  new  powers  could  manage  this 
enormous  greatness.  But  w^e  jjresumed  a  little :  the 
House  is  too  great  to  be  well  lit  even  by  our  new 
method  of  lighting; — at  least  when  passion,  and  interest, 
and  fear  cloud  the  air  the  great  sections  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  we  find,  are  hid  from  each  other ;  trifles 
move  like  phantoms  in  the  twilight ;  and  so  we  learn 
once  more  that  that  which  is  unknown  easily  becomes 
hateful  and  hostile,  and  that  ignorant  hatred  once  begun 
is  keen  in  reactions  and  increase. 

All  this,  however,  even  with  the  natural  alienage   of 


u 

freedom  and  slavery,  would  not  have  been  important  but 
that  two  distinct  fanatical  powers  have  risen  south  and 
north,  and  face  each  other, — both  based  on  that  enormous 
conceit,  that  dogmatism  of  self-will,  that  boldness  of  self- 
assertion  of  which  I  have  spoken,  —  but,  northwards,  this 
taking"  the  form  of  conscience,  —  a  fanaticism  for  an 
idea;  southwards^  a  fanaticism  for  an  interest,  mixed  up 
with  a  sectional  point  of  honor ;  an  absurd  humanity  here, 
an  absurd  blending  of  ambition,  honor,  and  avarice  there  ; 
both  darkly  exasperated  by  conflicts,  and  altogether  un- 
checked by  loyalty  to  the  common  nation,  or  even  by  any 
strong  sense  of  rectitude  as  to  obligation  and  law.  At 
Washington,  and  in  the  words  and  acts  sent  down  from 
Washington,  the  South  and  North  meet,  and  there  only 
they  meet,  and  present  to  each  other  their  worst  aspect, 
and  deal  with  each  other  in  their  worst  moods,  and  not 
with  the  nice  skill  which  that  great  intercourse  requires. 
The  sections  could  be  neighborly  if  there  were  total  ig- 
norance or  total  knowledge  of  each  other.  But  not  with 
such  knowledije  as  Washing-ton  and  Congrress  give.  It 
is  inevitable  that  such  northern  men,  in  such  a  mood, 
should  be  ill-pleased  with  such  southern  men  in  their 
mood.  And  the  reverse.  The  remedy  for  this  bad 
mutual  understanding  cannot  be  found  until  the  heart 
and  wisdom  of  both  sections  is  better  represented  among 
the  national  legislators ;  until  intercourse  between  the 
sections  is  increased,  —  not  merely  by  the  interchange  of 
commerce,  but  by  an  interchange  of  finer  benefits, —  of 
courtesies,  of  afiections,  of  fair  interpretations,  of  Chris- 
tian influences ;  —  and  not  until  the  Press,  in  whose 
looking-glass  each  side  sees  the  other's  face,  becomes  a 


15 

faithful  glass,  and  not  marked  (as  in  noted  instances  it  is) 
for  the  breadth  and  malice  of  the  distortions. 

But  now  let  me  confine  myself  to  faults  peculiar  to 
ourselves.  It  would  be  very  easy  to  berate  the  madness 
of  fanatics  south,  —  their  unnatural  and  wildlv  factious 
acts.  I  think  no  unbiassed  man  can  look  on  their  pro- 
ceedings without  a  mixture  of  inexpressible  sorrow  and 
indignation  —  all  the  deeper  for  the  good-will  he  bears 
them.  But  it  serves  no  manly  purpose  to  arraign  the 
absent  when  our  duty  is  with  ourselves.  I  prefer  to 
speak  of  the  fanatics  here  —  the  fanatics  as  to  Slavery. 

And  first,  as  to  their  influence.  I  deny  that  it  has 
been  small.  Those  who  deserve  that  name  are  to  be 
sure  few,  and  their  direct  effect  small,  —  often  indeed 
they  spend  their  force  against  themselves.  But  by  sup- 
plying in  large  part  the  data  and  shaping  the  opinion 
of  England  as  to  Slavery  here,  and  also  of  France, 
and  in  turn  reinforcing  themselves  from  these  quar- 
ters ;  —  by  intense  activity,  and  speaking  like  creatures 
in  a  wood  at  night,  with  more  (and  more  alarming) 
voices  than  the  creatures  themselves  justify; — by 
striking  right  at  the  heart  of  a  sensitive  people,  and 
all  the  year,  as  a  hu&iness^  planting  their  sting  with 
unerring  aim  in  the  very  sore  of  the  wound  ;  —  but 
much  above  all,  as  I  think,  by  acting  as  a  small  and 
rapid  stream  running  in  the  midst  of  a  large  and 
quiet  water,  they  have  turned  the  motion  with  them- 
selves, —  I  mean  that  they  have  turned  the  spirit  of 
a  larger  body  than  themselves,  lying  just  around  them, 
into  a  vague  direction  against  the  South :  through  all 
this,  —  aided  by  the  South  itself,  which  in  its  fury  has 


16 

» 

often  struck  back  on  the  bystanders,  and.  turned   them 

into  foes, — ttiey  have  been,  and  are,  poiverfid.  They 
/  are  hke  a  small  battery,  so  maliciously  placed  and 
^ .,  played  as  to  threaten  the  issue  of  the  day.  I  repeat : 
leaning  on  opinion  abroad,  and  availing  themselves  of 
a  natural  sectionalism  at  home,  and  trusting  to  a  series 
of  devilish  reactions  when  once  begun,  —  they  have 
been  mighty  by  indirection.  And  I  here  add  that  the 
Southern  complaints  as  to  Northern  responsibility  for 
all   this  are  more  just  than  we  are  willing  to  allow. 

Then,  as  to  the  fatal  nature  of  the  delusion  on  which 
this  faction  is  based,  I  shall  only  say:  it  is  no  doubt 
sanctified,  to  itself  by  the  conscious  humanity  in  which 
it  started,  but  it  is  none  the  less  a  blind,  a  dreadful 
tyranny  of  one  supposed  good  over  and  against  other 
good,  —  and  sits  hatching,  wnth  terrible  self-complacency, 
its  one  ^gg^  after  pushing  out  and  destroying  the  rest. 
And  it  is  not  merely  an  exclusiveness  whose  bent  is  to 
reject  other  morals,  but  to  reject  religion  also ;  and  this, 
not  only  because  it  is  so  fond  over  its  one  thing  that 
nothing  is  sacred  which  does  not  serve  to  that,  but 
because  nothing  becomes  so  embittered  and  narrowed 
as  a  benevolence  which,  proud  and  wilful  in  its  origin, 
has  been  checked  and  outraged,  as  it  thinks,  by  all  that 
is  called  good. 

Hence  it  comes  that  some  of  the  extremest  leaders 
of  a  moral  cause  not  only  do  not  pretend  to  be  spe- 
cially well-affected  towards  God,  or  towards  man  in 
general,  but  become  in  fact  not  specially /or  the  African 
himself, — nay,  not  for  him  at  all  perhaps  in  the 
last  issue,  except  as,  by  a  fine  chance,  they  liave  now 


17 

the  opportunity  of  being  against  all  others  by  being 
so  much  for-  the  slave.  There  was  once  a  terrible 
religious  justice  which  "  hewed  Agag  in  pieces  before 
the  Lord," — but  there  is  now  a  philanthropy  which 
hews  God  and  man  in  pieces  before  Agag.  Of  course, 
I  know  that  high  natures  led  by  high  instincts  have 
been  caught  in  this  trap  of  the  devil,  —  caught  by 
what  seemed  angel's  food,  and  I  speak  of  them  only 
with  sorrow  and  not  with  bitterness.  But,  led  into 
error  through  the  mistakes  of  noble  instincts,  I  must 
still  charge  them,  as  I  do,  with  the  name  of  fanati- 
cism,   and   with   its  dreadful  issues. 

It  is  this  hostile  spirit,  full  of  vital  activity,  and 
which  has  now  reached,  if  not  Power,  yet  increased 
influence,  (for  the  triumphant  party  as  it  has  gained 
something  from  it,  must  yield  something  to  it,)  —  it 
is  this  spirit,  longing  to  render  itself  into  illegal  act, 
and  which,  through  its  alliances,  seems  to  threaten 
aggression, — it  is  this  which,  far  more  than  any  assign- 
able wrongs,  justifies  the  South  to  itself  in  its  present 
position. 

And  I  here  repeat  the  old  assertion,  that  this  spirit 
of  excessive  opposition  has  defeated  all  benign  action 
as  to  the  slave,  and  has  turned  attention  away  from 
a  gradual  and  practical  dealing  with  the  subject.  The 
common  Christian  sentiment  in  the  great  Christian 
communities  in  the  South  was  very  much  at  one  with 
the  North  in  this  matter,  —  and  so  also  in  no  small 
degree  outside  of  the  churches.  The  truly  sensible 
men  of  the  country  South  and  North  were  impatient  of 
all    this   dispute   about    abstract   right,    and,    not  wast- 


18 

ing  themselves  on  this,  felt  and  knew  this  much  at 
least,  that  the  African  here,  —  though  hetter  than  the 
African  in  Africa,  —  though  better  than  the  African 
emancipated,  or,  as  I  shall  choose  to  say,  turned  loose, 
—  is  not  what  he  might  he,  and  that  it  became  them 
gradually,  and  accepting  the  facts,  to  do  their  best  for 
him.  To  increase  that  pity  and  justice  in  better  hearts, 
was  our  chief  duty  and  hope. 

I  have  been  much  among  large  slave-owners,  and  am 
happy  to  call  some  of  them  my  valued  friends.  I  may 
have  been  fortunate,  but  I  have  rarely  found  one,  though 
interests  were  deeply  involved,  whose  conscience  did  not 
respond  to  a  delicate  treatment  of  the  subject.  And 
mere  silence,  and  concern,  (I  have  seen  it  often  enough,) 
could  sliape  the  feelings  of  ingenuous  and  high-spirited 
men,  when  coarse  accusation  was  met  like  steel.  In 
fact  the  better,  and  I  think  (by  our  aid)  the  rul- 
ing class  of  southern  minds  would  always  have  been 
prompt  and  forward  in  the  right  direction,  unless 
thrown  back  by  some  of  us.  And  as  to  southern 
women,  —  women  in  the  best  fashion  of  womanhood, — 
whose  vast  influence  in  this,  as  in  all  humanity,  was 
always  on  the  side  where  Christ  stands,  —  what  deep 
and  tender  responsibility  have  I  seen  among  them,  and 
what  a  power  was  ready  for  us  there  had  we  known 
how  to   use  it! 

I  say,  had  this  belter  sentiment  of  the  South  been 
supported  by  us,  our  symj)athies  given  to  the  situation, 
it  would  gradually  have  meliorated  the  condition  of 
the  slave,  removed  the  otieiisive  features  as  to  marriage, 
instruction,  and  sale  —  would   have  resisted  the  designs 


19 

of  base  and  cruel  cupidity  among  themselves,  and 
gradually  solved  the  problem  by  raising  slavery  into  a 
clear  Christian  service,  and  in  the  process  educated  both 
parties,  master  and  slave,  to  a  higher  moral  position 
—  higher  perhaps  than  either,  ceftainly  than  one,  could 
have  obtained  alone.  Wilfulness,  however,  childish  sen- 
sitiveness to  one  thing,  impatience,  imperativeness, 
narrowing  and  darkening  into  actual  inhumanity  to  all 
concerned,  ends  now  in  threatening  the  future  of  the 
highest  race  on  earth,  —  and  involving  the  certain  ag- 
gravation  and  increase  of  slavery. 

But  I  must  leave  this  dark  nucleus  and  turn  to  the 
fault  of  a  much  larger  Northern  class.  There  are  many 
men  in  this  land  true  to  all  law,  who  yet  so  regard 
slavery  as  to  look  upon  this  contest  of  feeling  between 
North  and  South  as  a  necessary  and  normal  process. 
At  least  at  the  bottom  of  the  hearts  of  some  of  the  real 
leaders  of  the  Northern  party  is  a  belief  that  with  slavery 
no  harmonious  advance  can  be  made.  Accordingly,  they 
accept  the  widening  of  this  sectional  gulf,  and  legitimate 
it  as  part  of  a  necessary  alienation.  It  is  but  a  stage, 
they  think,  in  an  inevitable  process.  Hidden  or  open, 
they  feel  there  is  a  conflict  which  must  go  on,  issuing 
either  in  a  gradual  and  peaceable  triumph  of  one  of  the 
two  sections  ;  or  coming  out,  as  now,  into  open  collision, 
and  reaching  peace  only  by  quiet  dissolution  or  by  a 
coercion  of  the  weaker  section,  —  or  at  least  by  its  return 
to  the  Union  shorn  of  future  power.  Nay,  if  their  views 
go  thus  far,  they  must  go  farther.  In  case  of  disruption, 
they  must  see  that  side  by  side  two  such  nations,  or  the 
fragments  of  them,  could  never  exist,  —  being  slave  and 


20 

free  ;  and  they  feel  sure  as  to  which  must  triumph.  No 
matter  though  the  Southern  side,  if  it  begins  only  with 
the  Cotton  States,  begins  with  856,000  square  miles 
(an  area  equal  to  that  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Austria, 
Prussia,  and  Spain),  and  soon  must  stretch  down  to  Mex- 
ico and  Central  America,  and  blacken  vast  areas  with 
new  slavery  —  dark  tropic  armies  —  in  such  multitudes 
as  "  the  North  poured  never  from  her  frozen  loins  " ;  — 
no  matter  ;  nay,  no  matter  if,  at  last,  the  whole  Southern 
half  of  the  Confederacy  fall  off;  —  no  matter,  they  think, 
—  slavery  left  to  itself  will  destroy  itself.  So  that  the 
extinction  of  the  evil,  and  a  peaceful  end,  will  be  reached 
by  the  great  Southern  power  dying  in  its  own  corruption, 
or  its  national  existence  trampled  out  by  war. 

This  is  the  private  programme  of  some  of  the  farthest- 
looking  minds,  and  of  men  who  do  not  use  the  principles 
for  the  party,  but  the  party  for  the  principles.  This  is 
the  outline  —  (there  can  be  no  other)  —  sketched,  too,  in 
the  interest  of  humanity  !  I  do  not  mean  that  such 
leading  minds  ever  meant  —  much  less  do  they  now 
mean  —  to  make  unconstitutional  interferences,  but  they 
put  the  first  terms  of  the  logic  in  motion,  and  leave  its 
forces  to  bring  out  the  vast  conclusion.  I  am  not  insen- 
sible to  the  boldness  of  the  thought,  and  its  reach  into 
the  future. 

"  The  sybil,  who  had  numbered  In  the  world 
The  sun  to  make  two  hundred  compasses, 
In  hev  prophetic  fury  sewed  the  work." 

But  what  a  monstrous  scheme  !  as  visionary  and  wilful 
in  its  benevolence,  and  with  the  same  superfine  indiHer- 


21 

ence  to  real  evils  as  the  worst  of  those  fraternal  schemes 
which  the  worst  minds  of  France  once  put  into  dreadful 
experiment.  It  is  not  true  ;  we  are  under  no  necessity 
of  fatal  contest ;  the  thing  this  nation  is  put  here  to 
realize  is  not  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  the  value  of 
this  nation  is  not  to  be  measured  as  it  effects  that.  It 
is  erected  here  for  purposes  unspeakably  larger  ;  and  if 
we  be  true  to  the  stewardship,  the  lesser  with  the  greater 
trusts  will  be  borne  forward  together,  and  God's  purpose 
for  the  free  and  for  the  slave  will  come  to  fruit  in  our 
hands,  or  among  our  posterities. 

To  allow  another  thought  is  madness ;  it  is  guilt ! 
And  for  what  1  To  destroy  the  sun  for  his  spots '? 
Will  you  forget  the  ample  orb,  the  magnificence  of  the 
light-shadow  he  casts,  the  beneficent  grasp  of  his  hands 
upon  the  planets  ;  will  you  despise  and  cast  down  this 
solar-order  of  God,  because  you  in  your  visions  can 
conceive  a  sun  purged  of  spots ;  or  because,  in  your . 
conceit,  you  can  make  a  finer  thing  even  than  this, — 
"a  world  of  other  stuff"  1 

O  that  in  all  this  mistaken  duty  as  to  slavery,  what- 
ever its  degree  or  form,  the  spirit  of  Christ  were  felt,  — 
that  spirit  which  is  the  divine  "Way," — which,  while  it 
always  keeps  the  purest  and  profoundest  righteousness  as 
the  end,  moves  towards  it  in  a  sort  of  celestial  discreet- 
ness, as  the  river  curves,  yielding  to  necessities,  and 
sweetly  respecting  bounds. 

"  This  way  of  sweetest  wisdom,  tho'  it  winds, 
Is  yet  no  devious  way.     Slraightforwurd  goes 
The  lightning's  path,  and  straight  the  fearful  path 
Of  the  cannon-hall!    .... 
My  son  !  the  road  the  hunaan  being  travels, 


That  on  whicb  blessing  comes  and  goes,  — 
Curves  round  the  corn-fields  and  the  hill  of  vines, 

And  thus  secure,  thouffh  late,  leads  to  its  end." 

But  understand  me.  I  have  no  idea  that  the  great 
Republican  party  would  have  lent  itself  to  such  a 
scheme  or  such  a  spirit  as  that  just  mentioned.  Be  it  far 
from  me,  to  cast  a  slur  upon  so  large  a  mass  of  men,  as 
enlightened,  and  who  mean  to  be  as  national,  as  any 
among  us.  But  the  party  had  such  a  scheme  within 
it,  I  am  sure.  I  earnestly  hope  they  will  now  reject  it. 
For,  though  there  was  this  evil  within  them,  they  have 
not  been  conscious  of  it ;  and  the  South,  in  sweeping  as 
she  does  this  majority  of  northern  freemen  into  the  class 
of  her  foes,  commits  a  vast  mistake  and  wrong. 

That  great  party  not  only  represents  other  ideas  and 
issues,  but  it  represents  a  barrier  against  the  aggres- 
sions of  an  extreme  Southern  spirit, —  a  just  exasper- 
ation at  wilful  and  violent  Southern  acts,  —  and  an 
exasperation  not  less  just  at  that  powerful  party 
which  has  so  long  held  the  nation,  —  (not  always  for 
the  nation's  ends,) — and  which,  by  its  corrupt  com- 
pliances to  Southern  wishes,  has  gone  far  to  create 
the  Northern  sectionalism  which  it  now  so  violently 
accuses.  It  is  always  well  to  be  just.  And  let  me  say 
here  as  to  parties  in  general,  —  let  your  party  be  what  it 
will,  —  call  it  by  fine  names  of  Union  or  Freedom  or 
Purity;  —  you  have  not  much  to  boast  of.  Our  bad 
citizenship  will  soon  spoil  the  new  temple  with  the  old 
gods.  New  parties  are  the  same  bad  citizens  under  fresh 
names ;  and  though  of  course  one  party  may  be  and  is 
wdser  and  purer  than  another  at  one  moment,  and  so  to 


support  it  may  demand  the  whole  energy  of  those  who 
think  so,  yet  it  is  but  as  a  goblet  of  fresh  water  before 
the  coloring  drop  falls  in.  The  primal  taint  of  bad 
citizens  blasts  all. 

To  be  just,  it  was  necessary  to  say  this. 

Charging,  then,  no  party,  and  separating  this  spirit  as 
to  slavery  from  any  special  organization,  it  is  obvious 
enough  that,  through  whatever  organism  it  works,  — 
for  it  can  at  any  time  make  or  command  a  new  one,  — 
it  will  not  die  so  long  as  it  can  hope  in  such  an  interest 
to  grasp  the  government  or  keep  it;  for  a  compound 
of  power  and  profit,  on  the  base  of  a  moral  idea,  forms 
the  mightiest  party-composition  ever  known  among  us. 
Divide  it  finally  from  hope  of  power,  and  it  will  shrink 
back  into  the  nucleus  from  which  it  broke  out.  It  may, 
to  be  sure,  live  there ;  for  as  slavery  is  the  only  moral 
mischief  on  a  national  scale  that  the  moral  fanaticism 
of  this  land  can  ever  lay  its  hand  to,  and  as  that  spirit 
will  ever  demand  an  object,  be  sure  it  will  never  leave 
its  grasp  on  this.  But  its  force  will  be  inconsiderable. 
Can  there,  then,  be  such  a  settlement  of  this  question 
as  will  disunite  it  from  political  hopes  and  power '?  Can 
that  be  1  We  could  afford  great  calamities,  if  the  whole 
people  could  now  be  brought  face  to  face  witli  this  ques- 
tion, and  settle  it  forever.  Here,  then,  we  reach  the  one 
question  for  the  destiny  at  least  of  the  Western  world,  — 
Is  such  a  radical  settlement  possible  ?  Such  a  settle- 
ment, I  repeat,  as  will  forever  clear  the  subject  out  of 
the  sphere  of  the  government. 

I  hope  —  I  believe,  such  a  settlement  is  yet  possible, 
for  I  hold  it  a  crime  to  despair  of  the  State.     And  what 


24f 

shall  it  be  ]  It  is  not  for  me  to  instruct  you  on  such  a 
subject ;  but  as  I  hold  every  citizen  bound  to  speak,  I 
answer  in  a  word.  In  respect  to  slavery  in  the  terri- 
tories, (I  mention  no  other  points,  for  all  others  allow 
an  easy  adjustment,)  let  the  Missouri  line  be  given,  and 
the  application  of  that  rule  to  all  territories,  —  and  let 
the  acquisition  of  territory  be  forbidden  unless  by  a  vote 
of  two  thirds  ;  this,  or  something-  similar  to  this ;  and 
yield,  if  they  are  wished,  fresh  Constitutional  guaranties 

for  present  rights. You  see  I   would  not   stand 

on  the  terms  of  a  hard  bargain;  for  both  freedom  and 
the  slave  can  grant  very  generous  terms  and  yet  be 
gainers.  In  fact  every  one  knows  or  ought  to  know 
that  it  is  scarcely  a  practical  question,  at  least  as  to 
present  territory,  —  and  judicious  men  can  be  very 
liberal  concerning  abstractions.  But  whatever  your 
concession  is,  (I  am  not  exquisitely  careful  about  its 
terms)  it  should  be  such  in  style  and  substance  as  will 
bring  back  lost  Union  to  the  heart,  for  reaching  that, 
we  may  be  sure  that  if  we  yield  more  than  is  just,  w^e 
are  gaining  something  better  than  justice.  Let  the  Free 
States,  then,  speak  to  the  South  and  say,  "  Let  us  be 
at  peace,  —  for  we  be  brethren.  We  are  not  ashamed 
to  forget  all  irritations,  to  quiet  your  fears,  to  correct 
your  mistakes,  to  assure  your  rights,  —  nay,  we  will 
take  a  grand  scope  of  concession,  and  magnanimously 
yield  where  your  right  is  doubtful." 

But  yet  there  is  one  thing  which  on  our  part  we  must 
demand,  —  viz:  that  the  fact  be  hereafter  (/ 
mean  hereafter)  forever  settled,  that  the  United 
States  is  a  government.     For,  in  my  judgment,  the 


25 

question  as  to  this  which  has  now  come  out  in  full 
dimensions,  is  paramount  to  all  others.  The  atti- 
tude of  the  South,  or  much  of  the  South,  is,  that  force 
shall  not  be  used  to  maintain  national  law  in  case  of 
resistance  even  by  one  State.  I  so  understand  their 
present  position,  though  it  is  not  stated  in  general 
terms.  If  this  be  granted,  there  is  a  right,  practically, 
not  only  of  irresponsible,  but  guaranteed  secession  ;  and 
the  nation  has  no  security  against  exactions  made  from 
a  section,  under  threat,  and  national  power  within  the 
nation  is  reduced  to  a  great  phantom  which  any  way- 
ward child  can   pass   its   hand  through. 

If  this  be  granted,  such  a  State  as  South  Carolina  may 
every  year  point  her  guns  against  the  American  flag, 
while  this  great  empire  —  called  an  empire,  but  without 
a  bone  in  its  body  —  must  sit  in  helpless  imbecility,  or 
go  about  and,  with  "  bated  breath  and  whispering  humble- 
ness," get,  or  strive  to  get,  the  consent  of  a  whole  sec- 
tion before  it  can  move  to  the  enforcement  of  its  laws  on 
one  inch  of  it.  If  the  South  deliberately  maintains  this, 
no  hope  of  a  lasting  settlement  is  left,  —  for  it  contradicts 
the  very  thought  of  government  and  of  that  security  for 
which  the  government  was  erected.  Of  course  I  well 
know  that  the  actual  use  of  force  is  nearly  a  fatal  rem- 
edy,—  but  to  deny  the  right  to  use  it  in  last  extremes  is  to 
strip  the  government  even  of  moral  influence.  No  doubt, 
a  State  or  bodies  of  States  may  be  ill-treated  and  it 
may  be  a  high  act  to  fall  back  on  Revolution,  —  but  call 
it  not  Regular,  and  a  Constitutional  act,  —  but  what  it  is 
—Revolutionary^  —  and  justifiable  only  on  Revolutionary 
grounds  and  after  the  failure  of  all  Constitutional  meth- 

4 


26 

ods  either  to  remedy  wrong,  or  peaceably  to  unloose  the 
national  bond. And  I  must  add  that  the  states- 
men who  put  aside  this  question, — as  is  now  general, — 
as  if  force  can  have  no  practical  place  or  virtue,  forget 
that  such  a  provision  made  definite  and  constitutional,  will 
by  every  sanction  forever  prevent  the  necessity  of  force, — 
or  at  least  will  so  sacredly  justify  its  use  that  coercion 
under  it  can  be  made  possible.  But  it  is  for  the  South 
to  settle  this  question  ;  and  if  it  is  settled,  all  the  con- 
cessions asked  of  the  North,  —  this  imperial  and  advanc- 
ing North,  —  sink  into  comparative  insignificance. 

For  you  then  the  question  simply  is,  which  will  you 
choose,  —  a  broken  nation,  with  its  whole  issues  to  white 
and  black,  or  will  you  choose  to  be  wisely  yielding  on 
one  side  that  you  may  give  foundation  to  Government 
and  Liberty  on  this  Continent  ?  That  question,  fairly  put 
to  the  people  of  the  Free  States,  will  receive  an  emphatic 
answer ;  such  as,  if  they  know  their  future,  they  can 
well  afford  to  give.  There  and  there  only  is  our  hope. 
For  the  South,  alarmed  at  the  spirit  exhibited  at  the 
North,  —  which  spirit,  in  some  measure  at  least,  now 
begins  a  career  of  power  ;  alarmed,  not  merely  at  the 
loss  of  an  election,  but  at  the  overtowering  prospect  of 
the  Free  States,  both  outside  the  government  and  in- 
side, and  from  this  forward,  —  looks  about  her  for  more 
securities,  (the  feeling  is  common  even  to  her  most  con- 
servative men,j  while  sectional  bitterness  and  ambition 
seize  on  the  universal  discontent,  and,  bending  it  to  their 
purposes,  make  this  alternative  distinct :  Disunion  or 
some  magnanimous  Concession.  And  such  concession,  I 
assert,  must  be,  and  ought  to  be,  and  will  be  made  if  the 


S7 

people  speak.  To  the  people,  then,  let  the  question  be 
promptly  put.  See  to  this  —  to  this  one  point.  Let 
your  business  be  to  see  to  it.  Speak,  write,  move,  unite, 
act  to  this  one  end,  to  clear  away  parties  from  between 
the  people  and  their  perishing  government.  I  believe 
in  the  people  in  a  moment  like  this,  and  I  care  not  a 
whit  for  parties,  and  have  no  faith  in  mere  party-men. 
They  will  wait  until  the  heart-strings  of  the  nation  crack 
before  they  bate  one  jot  of  their  party-demands.  The 
question  must  be  forced  down  to  the  people.  Who  hin- 
ders it  ]  No  matter  what  our  opinions  may  be,  who 
dares  to  deny  that,  in  a  revolutionary  moment  like  this, 
we,  the  people,  and  we  only,  ought  to  be  the  judges? 
Our  Congress  and  our  State  Legislatures  are  representa- 
tives of  other  views,  of  another  and  an  older  condition 
of  things,  and  ought  not  to  pass  upon  a  crisis  like  this. 
To  the  people  at  large  let  it  come,  and  quickly ;  and  if 
persons  or  a  party  are  found  obstructing  an  appeal  to  the 
true  source  of  settlement,  it  is  an  usurpation  of  jurisdic- 
tion, and  the  time  is  near  when  they  will  be  ground  to 
powder. 

But  you  say,  "  Nothing  will  satisfy  Southern  extrem- 
ists, and  it  is  vain  to  try  it."  Of  course,  no  satisfaction 
to  extremists  anywhere  can  be.  And  of  course  mere 
madness  and  fright,  a  willingness,  for  the  sake  of  peace 
or  property,  to  say,  "  Take  all,"  is  to  be  despised,  and  can 
be  the  source  of  no  just  settlement.  It  is  another  spirit 
which  is  asked  for.  The  people  who  at  the  first  signal 
of  disaster  yield  all,  and  those  who  understand  no  course 
but  that  of  holding  to  every  jot  of  their  due,  —  both  these 
classes  of  persons  are  at  present  the  bane  of  the  State. 


28 

"  But  the  South  really  wants  no  arrangement,  — 

and  no  concession  will  meet  the  case."  As  to  the  Border 
States,  I  assure  you,  you  are  mistaken,  —  and  all  these 
States  once  brought  into  firm  unity  with  us,  together 
we  can  finally  control  the  whole  subject.  But  suppose 
the  possibility  that  no  concessions  will  be  met  —  if  you 
offer  them  —  you  have  done  your  part  —  you  have  placed 
yourself  in  such  a  position  as  will  at  least  give  to  you 
honor  and  strength  in  the  day  of  adversity. 

But  you  still  say,  "  To  yield  now  is  to  be  bullied  and 
demoralized,  and  more  of  the  same  sort  must  come  after ; 
and  we  wont  be  menaced."  I  answer  :  In  a  question  not 
involving  principle,  I  want  no  rule  of  such  honor  or  such 
justice.  I  want  the  rule  of  brotherhood,  and  of  the 
stronger  to  the  weaker.  Do  you  call  this  ^mr.^  —  I  wish 
we  had  more  of  this  honorable  fear ;  —  but  who  dares 

suspect  these  mighty  Free  States  of  cowardice  \ 

But  "  you  will  sacrifice  something ;  "  —  I  take  patriotism 
to  mean  that  love  of  the  nation  that  can  sacrifice  some- 
thing ;  when  the  life  of  the  country  is  in  question,  the  sec- 
tion or  the  party  must  go  down  before  the  nation.  We 
are  Americans ;  that  is  now  our  platform,  and  not  the 
platforms  of  Charleston  or  Chicago.  We  are  Americans  ; 
and  your  star,  and  my  star,  and  all  the  stars  of  the  great 
constellation  disappear,  and  I  see  nothing  in  the  heavens 
but  the  one  day-star  !  If,  to  be  sure,  you  are  a  mere  fac- 
tion, with  certain  ends  of  greedy  hope  or  mere  pride,  — 
which  you  cannot  give  up  but  from  fears  as  mean,  —  and 
if  you  show  all  tliis  in  your  faces  as  you  do  it,  then  your 
concessions  will  be  but  a  title  to  contempt.  But  if  you 
are  men  with  public  souls,  wise  enough  to  shape  a  line  or 


29 

mould  an  abstraction  so  as  to  suit  a  point  of  fancy  and 
honor ;  or  if  you  yield  something  real,  magnanimous 
enough  to  prefer  a  nation's  life  to  a  theory  or  a  party, 
and  to  do  it  too  with  a  noble  air  ;  if  this  be  so,  you 
of  the  Free  States  will  rise  in  a  majesty  of  real  pozver 
unknown  before.  The  measure  of  superiority  is  the  ability 
to  yield  with  increased  dignity. 

Besides,  note  this,  which  we  forget  :  The  point  of  in- 
ternational honor  should  have  no  place  in  this  adjustment. 
We  of  these  States  do  not  stand  —  and  now  is  the  fairest 
moment  to  show  it  —  on  the  jealous,  rival  principles  of 
foreign  States.  Among  the  many  dignities  assigned  to  us 
is  such  a  position  as  will  allow  us  to  illustrate  and  begin 
a  new  international  spirit;  at  least  our  honor  as  States 
should  be  the  honor  of  a  generous  brotherhood,  and  not 
the  cold  justice  (meaning  justice  to  themselves)  which  to 
this  day  marks  with  a  mere  barbarism  the  sentiment  of 
international  honor.  To  introduce  between  these  Com- 
monwealths the  feelings  and  attitude  of  jealous  and  hos- 
tile communities,  is  the  worst  sign.  It  becomes  us  to 
infuse,  if  not  Christianity,  yet  something  of  the  humane 
heart  of  Christianity  into  national  proceedings.  The 
mutual  conduct  of  these  States  conceived  in  a  higher 
spirit  would  set  forward  a  nobleness  in  the  relations  of 
States,  and  draw  the  first  sketch  of  the  great  com- 
munities of  the  race,  standing  together  as  a  family  and 
kingdom  of  Christ.  Are  we  high  enough  to  treat 
it  so  ] 

If  we  are,  the  Free  States,  having  once  taken  a  gener- 
ous position,  will  unite  firmly  upon  it ;  and  this  great 
free  section,  once   at  real  unity  with  itself,  must  bring 


80 

the  South  to  it.  I  think  it  is  inevitable.  No  dissolu- 
tion is  possible,  with  the  North  at  real  unity  with  itself, 
and  on  noble  ground.  While  on  the  other  hand,  so 
long"  as  it  is  broken  up,  or  stands  represented  by  party- 
ideas,  not  only  will  the  South  fall  off',  but  there  will  be 
a  dissolution  of  the  North  itself.  Every  interest  there- 
fore, from  the  lowest  party-interest  up  to  the  interests 
of  the  slave,  and  up  to  all  the  interests  of  human  na- 
ture, demand  such  a  settlement. 

But  there  is,  observe,  one  condition  precedent  in  all 
this :  that  the  men  of  this  nation  value  the  nationality 
with  some  degree  of  justness.  That  I  do  not  see,  but 
the  contrary.  Perhaps  the  time  for  valuing  it  will  only 
come  after  we  are  made  acquainted  with  national  retri- 
bution. In  the  earnest  hope,  however,  that  we  may  w^ake 
up  in  time,  permit  me  now  to  ask  your  deliberate  atten- 
tion to  the  faults  of  tone  and  temper  prevailing  just  at 
this  moment. 

You  will  hardly  deny  now  that  it  is  a  moment  of 
exigency.  It  certainly  looks  as  if  the  Lord's  fan  were 
in  His  hand  to  sift  the  nation,  and  as  if  there  were  to 
be  a  scattering  of  men  as  chaff  from  the  mouth  of  the  fan, 
or  as  dust  from  the  threshing-floor.  Already  the  golden 
band  of  the  States  is  broken  —  and  there  is  preparation 
for  war  !  War  among  these  commonwealths !  among 
American  citizens !  The  vital  question  then  is,  Hoio 
does  the  citizen  behave  himself  at  this  moment  ?  Every- 
thing hangs  on  that. 

In  the  history  of  the  debates  and  of  the  process  by 
which  our  present  Government  was  formed,  Mr.  Madi- 
son  places  as  the  last  lines   of  that  great   record,  this 


31 

impressive  narrative:  "Whilst  the  last  members  were 
signing,  Dr.  Franklin  looking  towards  the  President's 
chair,  at  the  back  of  which  a  rising  sun  happened  to  be 
painted,  observed  to  a  few  members  near  him,  that  paint- 
ers had  found  it  difficult  to  distinguish  in  their  art  a 
rising  from  a  setting  sun.  '  I  have,'  said  he,  '  often  and 
often  in  the  course  of  the  session,  and  the  vicissitudes 
of  my  hopes  and  fears  as  to  its  issue,  looked  at  that  sun 
behind  the  President,  without  being  able  to  tell  whether 
it  was  rising  or  setting ;  but  now,  at  length,  I  have  the 
happiness  to  know  that  it  is  a  rising  and  not  a  setting 
sun.'  "  He  thought  he  saw  in  that  sight  of  wise  for- 
bearance,— the  Patriots  from  all  sections  and  with  all 
views  and  interests  coming  forward  to  sign  away  their 
wishes  for  their  duty, — he  thought  tliat  sight  changed 
the  Heavens  to  a  fresh,  eastern  look,  like  Morning. 
Judging-  by  the  same  test,  the  sun  those  philosophic 
eyes  discerned  to  be  rising-,  is  now,  after  a  Lapland 
day,  near  to  the  moment  of  its  sinking.  I  say  judg- 
ing by  the  same  test,  of  lioiv  the  citizen  behaves  himself. 


I  do  not  wish  to  exaggerate,  and  I  shall  therefore 
begin  by  saying  that  everywhere  there  are  people  of 
the  right  fashion,  God-fearing  men, — or  if  not  that, 
yet  lovers,  and  if  need  be,  martyrs  to  the  common  weal ; 
and  some  are  already  at  work,  and  with  great  effort  and 
sacrifice.  There  are  such  before  me.  But  in  general 
it  is  not  so  ;  —  so  far  from  it  that,  as  I  have  heard,  there 
may  be  an   inebriation  of  an   age   or    people,    it    looks 


82 

HOW  as  if  there  were  a  great  case  of  it  here ;  a  morbid 
torpor  with  some,  a  bad  excitement  with  others. 

Among  many  this  bad  excitement  grows  daily ;  they 
seem  to  breatlie  in  an  atmosphere  heated  from  be- 
low. Everywhere  while  I  speak  there  are  men  who 
feel  the  sanctions  of  their  better  nature  passing  away 
and  a  dark  seed  germinating  with  fatal  speed.  South- 
ward you  can  hear  the  crack  of  its  rank  growth  hour 
by  hour.  And  the  North,  for  her  part,  is  "  taking  root 
downward,"  and  will  respond  with  a  deepening  response. 
And  many  begin  to  talk  coolly,  and  rather  pleasantly, 
of  war  ! — such  war  as  was  never  waged!  of  war  which 
is  to  cover  this  continent  with  a  vast  fratricide  !  The 
brute  within  begins  to  scent  blood,  and  there  is  a  stir 
among  the  dark  and  buried  instincts  of  men's  lowest 
souls.  I  hear,  here  in  this  seat  of  our  oldest  and  most 
Christian  civilization, — I  hear  talk  of  what  arms  we 
have !  what  advantages !  and  there  is  something  of  joy 
in  the  recital.  I  know  that  both  there  and  here  much 
that  is  noble  is  mixed  up  with  this  feeling.  I  know, 
to  be  sure,  that  there  may  be  Christian  war,  and  that 
there  is  a  time  when,  in  execution  of  law  and  to  vin- 
dicate the  public  existence,  a  Christian  hand  can  draw 
the  sword  ;  —  but  with  what  awful  solemnity,  —  with 
what  deprecation,  —  washing  the  hand  clear  of  all  taint, 
and  taking  down,  with  invocations  to  God,  and  with 
hearts  bleeding  inwardly,  the  sword  of  public  justice, — 
such  a  sword  as  was  worn  at  the  side  of  George  Wash- 
ington, and  not  a  knife  bared  in  passion,  and  private 
quarrel  ! 

It  is  clear  we  must  have  a  better  spirit  in  this  coun- 


.       38 

try,  or  it  is  in  vain  to  talk  of  settlements.      God   will 
forsake  us  and  our  compacts. 

We  are  so  full  of  conceit  too  !  In  fact  every  defect 
I  have  enumerated  in  our  national  character  and  train- 
ing" is  brought  out  by  this  exigency  into  the  broadest 
illustration.  Conceit,  I  say.  Some  of  us  proposing  to 
break  a  government  to  pieces  and  reconstruct  it  —  as  if 
it  vi^ere  a  toy !  This  government,  formed  in  our  golden 
age,  under  such  necessities,  after  such  distresses,  with 
such  wisdom  and  forbearance,  —  to  refound  that  govern- 
ment in  a  sea  of  turmoil,  in  a  generation  of  men  who 
have  lived  under  no  discipline  of  public  aims  and  com- 
mon sufferings !  To  dissolve  this  inimitable  crystal  in 
the  fool's  hope  that  it  will  form  again  in  as  fine  a  shape  ! 

But  the  great  body  in  all  respects  think  justly;  yet 
mingled  with  such  apathy  and  helplessness  as  has  never 
been  exhibited  by  so  free  and  able  a  people.  It  is 
partly  apathy^  I  say.  We  are  inveterately  used  to  find 
all  things  done  for  us,  and  so,  hitherto,  we  are  content 
to  let  this  get  itself  done  also  and  as  usual.  Besides, 
because  this  people  have  moved  on  through  such  mate- 
rial success,  they  have  come  to  attribute  to  themselves 
a  secret  virtue  for  success,  and  so  they  feel  they  will 
be  pushed  on  through  all  doors  shut  on  their  way. 
They  do  not  see  that  now,  for  the  first  time,  they 
reach  a  real  difficulty,  —  of  that  sort,  I  mean,  which 
tests  a  true  citizenship,  —  for  an  iron  wall  obstructs, 
which  opens  to  no  sesame  but  the  words  Public  Love 
and  Self-Sacrifice  !  And  because  we  cannot  pronounce 
those  words,  it  is  feared  we  will  perish  at  our  first  trial. 
Judge  this  case,  I  warn  you,  in  no  respect,  by  the  past. 

5 


34 

It  is  a  new  case,  testing  what  reality  we  have  as  men, 
and  bringing  all  the  past  of  our  negligence  and  selfish- 
ness to  a  first  account  with  us.  Divine  Providence,  my 
friends,  often  for  ages  keeps  society  like  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  —  a  green  and  happy  surface,  —  while  below, 
belted  in,  lies  a  world  of  fire  and  convulsion.  And  at 
the  moment  the  demoniacal  force  comes  up,  it  will  search 
out  what  amount  of  manhood  is  left.  If  we  are  found 
true,  I  believe  the  Divine  Restrainer  will  vet  restrain  : 
but  woe  to  us  if,  when  there  is  beyond  a  doubt  the 
beginning  of  the  upbreaking,  and  when  Providence  on 
every  side  is  ringing  its  alarm-bells,  we  will  not  wake 
up,  or  deny  and  flout  the  fact  heloiu. 

But  a  more  intolerable  thing  than  our  apathy  is 
our  foolish  helplessness.  We  have  every  appearance  of 
power,  but  no  reality.  For  the  defence  of  Cartha- 
ginian liberty  Hannibal  gathered  various  nations  and 
arms,  and  according  to  Polybius  twenty  languages  were 
spoken  in  his  camp.  But  here  it  would  appear  that, 
to  surround  and  defend  a  liberty  intended  not  for  Car- 
thage but  for  Man,  all  tongues  and  people  had  gathered 
and  were  ready.  But  nothing  is  ready !  Over  thirty 
millions  wait  —  for   whom  1     There   is  no  one  coming, 

that  is,  unless ^OM  come!      YOU! 1   hear  the 

future  crying  its  scorn  back  on  us  and  our  helpless 
millions.  All  the  world  would  acquiesce  if  the  United 
States  of  America  went  to  wreck  because  it  was  fit 
and  ripe  for  such  an  end.  The  patriot  would  bow 
his  head  to  the  just  stroke.  But  we  are  not  ripe  for 
any  such  fate.  Judged  by  the  standard  of  nations,  this 
is  a  great   and  undecayed    people.     But  the    citizen  is 


S5 

found  to-day  undisciplined  in  public  duty.  Through 
our  idle  divorce  from  public  concerns,  we  present  the 
sight  of  a  mighty  people  lying  unorganized,  except  in 
the  organisms  of  party,  and  helpless,  doing  little  else 
than  watching  the  progress  of  our  own  ruin.  And 
so  we  move,  drifting,  drifting,  and,  from  the  habit  of 
our  good  fortune,  obstinately  thinking  there  is  luck  in 
the  drift.  It  is  intolerable,  I  say,  to  see  this  great 
and  precious  thing  perishing  from  such  folly ;  it  shocks 
and  confuses  the  moral  sense.  Why,  the  mere  chance 
or  madness  which  founders  a  great  ship,  or  destroys 
a  life,  startles  that  invincible  expectation  each  soul  is 
born  with,  of  a  certain  reasonableness  in  nature ;  — 
but  here  is  a  great  life,  girt  with  such  glory,  the 
pledge  of  the  fairest  and  holiest  hopes  down  through 
the  new  scenes  of  a  world  hereafter,  —  a  presence 
which  wakes  a  morning  in  the  earth ;  —  I  say  that 
this  life,  this  State,  this  America,  this  noblest  birth, 
this  home  of  men,  should  be  broken  down  under  the 
axes  and  hammers  of  a  mob  of  politicians  and  mad- 
men, South  and  North,  —  the  majestic  people,  mean- 
while, lying  below,  torpid,  under  some  dread  fascina- 
tion,—  this  !  — it  is  a  new  thing  even  in  a  history  so  full 
of  surprises  and  horrors  as  the  history  of  States,  — 
and  it  is  a   shock  to  the  whole    moral  frame : — 

"  Earth  feels  the  wound,  and  Nature  from  her  inmost  seat 
Gives  signs  of  woe." 

Our  help  must  be  in  God. 

FOR  WORST  OF  ALL  ;  with  this  helpless  apathy, 
there  is  a  positive  selfishness  towards  the  nation  in  her 
extremest   exigency.      Even  with   some   of    those  who 


36 

seem  to  stand  most  boldly  for  the  nation,  it  is  merely 
because  the  nation  is  identical  with  good  trade,  and  they 
would  not  scruple,  at  any  moment,  "  to  desert  the  ship 
of  State  if  they  could  save  themselves  in  the  cock- 
boat of  their  own  fortunes."  But  with  many,  over  all 
the  country,  there  is  actually  a  hard  and  unsparing  eye 
cast  upon  the  Union  !  its  value  counted  with  an  easy  air, 
and  with  a  sharp  look  against  it.  "  There  are  many 
things  more  valuable  than  the  Union,"  I  hear.  There 
may  be  ;  —  but  what  things  1  Why,  the  concession  of 
any  free  soil  to  slavery.  This  they  call  "  crime,"  and  so 
enormous,  that  it  were  better  to  destroy  a  hundred  Unions 
than  act  it,  —  better  to  destroy  for  this  a  Union  which 
sets  bounds,  which  meliorates  slavery,  and  gives  the  only 
hope  to  the  slave  !  For  a  fanaticism,  —  or,  lower  still, 
for  party-pride  or  greed,  —  and  because  they  hate  to 
swallow  a  party  disappointment,  —  people  will  prate  of 
"  crime,"  and  dare,  in  the  face  of  God  and  man,  to  ruin 
slave  and  free,  and  call  it  virtue  ! 

What  is  Union '?  (noble  name  of  brotherhood,  now 
cheapened  and  traduced !)  What  is  Union  1  It  is 
thirty-three  Commonwealths  spread  from  sea  to  sea, 
in  unity  for  freedom,  peace,  and  power !  It  is  to  them 
^11,  strength  out  of  weakness,  peace  out  of  quarrel,  — 
a  mould  which  shapes  littleness  to  greatness,  and  great- 
ness to  permanence  ;  it  is  a  tower  that  "  stands  four- 
square to  every  wind  that  blows,"  which  Freedom  every- 
where "  runneth  into,  and  is  safe  "  ;  it  is  something  that 
Stands  here  in  the  west  of  the  world  as  a  portent  to  all 
kingdoms  of  darkness,  and  a  promise  to  the  children  of 
light ;  a  something  which,  though  growing  like  a  moun- 


37 

tain,  looks  as  if  it  were  but  a  foundation  for  a  heavenly 
structure,  —  looks  as  if  it  were  a  "  corner-stone  elect 
and  precious  "  for  that  throne  which  is  to  stand  as  the 
sun  in  the  heavens !  ^ 

Yet  on  this  a  mass  of  men,  who  have  gained  from  it 
all  they  are,  look  with  an  eye  cold  as  the  eye  of  a  fish, 
and  could  stand  by,  very  comfortable,  while  they  see  the 
axes  smiting-  it  to  the  heart,  as  if  it  were  a  rotten  tree. 
I  am  sure  there  is  some  delusion.  They  separate  the 
Union  as  an  accident  from  the  Nation  and  from  the 
national  life.  But  the  Union  —  woe  be  to  them  if  they 
do  not  learn  it !  —  is  the  Nation,  — not  a  mere  wrapping 
for  the  Nation,  as  a  fillet  for  the  head  of  a  god.  It  is  the  - 
Nation  !  Destroy  it,  and  think  not,  ye  men  of  Massa- 
chusetts or  of  Pennsylvania !  that  ye  have  left  to  you  a 
Massachusetts  or  a  Pennsylvania;  you  will  by  the  same 
process  disintegrate  yourselves  to  atoms.  There  is  no 
other  unity,  nothing  else  among  us  which  seems  one  by 
the  proudest  and  most  needful  bonds,  —  no  integrity 
of  section,  of  commonwealths,  of  religion,  of  humane 
brotherhoods,  of  man  with  man,  or  of  man  with  himself, 
—  which  is  not  shaken  the  moment  you  break  the  one 
charmed  bond  around  the  whole !  Tell  me,  then,  which 
way  you  can  so  quickly  walk  to  barbarism,  as  by  carry- 
ing out  to  act  this  public  heartlessness  1  Can  any  man 
name  to  himself  all  that  this  united  country  is  to  his  own 
consciousness,  his  own  manhood  'I  What  littleness  are 
we  bent  on  1  What  little  bitter  hordes  do  we  seek  to 
break  into'?  —  following  our  great  men  of  the  moment, 
or  our  newspapers,  or  our  wilful  wish,  and  forgetting 
HIM   and    his    parting  words,  —  forgetting    him,  whose 


38 

deep  love  and  wisdom  saw  this  moment  and  warned  his 
children  of  it !  O,  to  hear  his  voice  !  I  wonder  that 
his  voice  is  not  heard  from  his  grave.  Perhaps  if  all 
were  silent,  and  we  listened,  we  might  hear  it !  O,  for 
an  hour  of  his  majestic  presence,  —  to  see  that  face, 
heavy  with  great  and  generous  cares,  the  face  of  the  man 
who  bore  America  and  its  liberty  in  his  heart,  —  to  whom 
God  gave  the  land  and  the  cause  as  a  gift  for  his  noble- 
ness !  O,  to  behold  him  !  to  see  the  glance  he  would 
cast,  —  to  hear  what  word  this  Southern  man  would 
speak,  to  South,  to  North,  to  Virginia,  —  to  bow  before 
him  down  to  his  beloved  feet  with  shame  and  sorrow, 
that  we  might  rise  up  and  come  forth,  nobly  terrible 
to  purify  and  save  the  land.  But  we  wish  for  him  in 
Vain,  —  and  the  company  of  our  great  and  venerable 
ones  have  gone  after  him  :  and  "  a  man  has  become 
more  precious  than  the  golden  wedge  of  Ophir."  The 
Land  is  bereaved  :  "  there  is  none  to  guide  her  among 
all  the  sons  she  has  brought  forth." 

Our  help  must  be  in  God. 

O  thou  Spirit,  which  hast  moved  through  the  sad 
history  of  man,  in  mysterious  slowness,  forming  the 
souls  of  the  world,  be  inward  among  us  now;  — 
let  Thy  great  work  not  perish  from  the  folly  and 
crime  of  an  hour ;  —  lift  us  up,  scatter  the  baseness 
of  our  souls,  and  in  Thy  pure  power  may  each  man 
stand  in  his  ijlace  as  a  sentinel  of  the  public  safety 
and  honor ! 

And  now,  if  you  have  offered  your  prayer,  offer  your 
act.  God  is  ready  if  we  are.  Awake!  Arise!  The 
country  looks  and  waits  for  the  coming  of  her  pure  and 


39 

heroic  children.  I  do  believe  that  God  will  bring  them 
up  ;  this  ripening  hour  of  ill  is  also  a  ripening  hour  of 
good,  —  there  is  a  preparing  and  fashioning  of  better 
hearts,  —  and  the  seeming  agony  of  dissolution  is,  I 
trust,  the  birth-moment  of  a  new  sentiment  of  Christian 
nationality  on  which  a  better  future  will  rest.  To  this, 
coming  generation  indeed,  there  would  have  scarceljr 
been  a  country,  had  not  this  day  of  trial  been  ordained 
of  God  to  teach  them,  and  to  point  it  out  to  their  eyes. 
Arise,  then,  in  hope,  and  act !  This  is  the  time.  There 
is  no  greater  time  in  history.      Who  waits  \ 

But  I  hear  once  more,  and  hear  again,  and  my  heart 
sinks  in  hearing  it,  "  we  can  do  nothing."  Do  nothing! 
Suppose  not ;  it  is  not  a  question  for  us  what  will  save 
the  nation,  —  that  is  with  God,  —  but  what  it  becomes 
us  to  do  to  save  it.  But  how  is  this,  you  can  do  nothing  ? 
If  but  a  few  of  us  stood  out  truly  and  grandly  right, 
and  the  Lord  who  built  the  nation  were  with  us,  before 
our  faces,  the  storm  would  shrink  from  the  heavens. 
Do  nothing!  Why,  let  each  man,  standing  in  his  place, 
be  dutiful,  brave  and  generous,  —  let  him  reach  out  with 
both  hands,  —  let  his  heart  beat,  and  I  assure  you  he 
will  find  or  make  the  most  miraculous  organs.  O,  to 
hear  the  beat  of  patriotic  hearts,  beating  as  if  they 
would  break  !  O,  to  see  men  with  a  tithe  of  that  will 
to  keep  a  nation  alive,  which  just  now  invincible  in 
Italian  bosoms  has  made  a  nation  to  live !  That  will, 
American  citizens,  is  law  and  necessity,  here  as  there. 

And  now  I  thank  God  that  I  have  been  allowed  to 
speak  a  word  for  the  Country  to-day.  I  have  done  it  in 
love  to  her  and  to  all  her  children.     Pardon  the  plain- 


40 

ness   and   urgency  of  my  speech,  —  I    have    felt   as   if 
pleading  for  a  Father's  life. 

It  is  not  politics  I  have  called  you  to ;  it  is  religion 
and  worship.  For.  in  the  language  of  John  Milton,  "  I 
maintain  that  the  cause  of  Christ  and  civil  liberty  is  one, 
and  moving  to  one  glorious  end." 

And  so  I  close.  Let  Christian  men  who  carry  Chris- 
tianity to  their  firesides,  and  to  their  business,  now  carry 
it  down  to  this  great  crisis  of  the  public,  and  show 
men  the  work  of  a  Christian  citizen.  Find  out  your 
duty  !  and  find  it,  not  from  your  prejudices,  but  by  seek- 
ing it  in  humble  confession  of  national  and  private  sins, 
—  and  in  humble  prayer.  Humility!  prayer!  these  are 
the  remedies  of  our  ills,  —  owning  in  our  hearts  un- 
speakable ingratitude  to  God  and  selfishness  to  man. 
Low  as  we  may  go  down  this  day,  we  cannot  get  low 
enough  for  our  fit  place.  Let  us  go  lower  still ;  and 
truly,  most  truly  humble  ourselves  under  the  "  mighty 
hand  "  that  is  upon  us,  trusting  that  He  will  "  exalt  us 
in  due  time."  But  be  sure,  the  contrition  is  not  genuine, 
nor  will  the  "  exaltation  "  come,  unless  we  go  forth  eager 
to  find  our  duty,  and  in  His  strength  to  stand  on  it.  In 
His  strength.  "  Trust  ye  in  the  Lord  forever  —  for  in 
the  Lord  JEHOVAH  is  everlasting  strength."  —  In  His 
strength  stand !  I  say.  In  the  sacred  name  of  God  I 
charge  you  to  stand  true  to  the  nation  !  —  for  the  sake 
of  Christ  "  whose  ri^ht  it  is." 

But  if  after  all  the  citizens  ivill  hold  back  from  duty, 
we  deserve  to  fall.  Let  us  fall  !  Eighty  years  of  the 
goodness  of  God  has  but  served  to  ingrain  folly  into 
our   fibre,  and    the   only  hope  for  us  is  in  the    furnace 


41 

of  fire.  The  augur  finds  the  fatal  portent  that  the  vic- 
tim is  without  a  heart. 

Whatever  comes,  I  hope  at  least  that  the  threatwied 
overthrow  of  the  objects  of  our  pride  and  love  will  drive 
us  up  to  "the  city  which  hath  foundations," — above 
the  changes  of  this  restless  sea,  to  make  us  "  citizens  of 
a  better  country,  even  an  heavenly." 

And  uow,  great  and  gracious  God,  as  sinful  men  we 
bow  and  humble  ourselves  before  Thee,  even  to  the  dust ! 
Most  merciful  hast  Thou  been,  and  we  adore  Thee  for 
thy  mercies.  "  Be  bounteous  still,  to  give  us  only 
good !  "  But  if  thy  mercies  will  not  teach  us,  teach  us 
by  sorrow,  and  so  purify  and  redeem  us,  —  and  through 
afflictions  open  to  us  the  Land  of  Peace  and  everlast- 
ing Rest.  And,  O  God  the  Saviour,  the  Redeemer 
in  the  time  of  trouble,  save  this  nation !  Purify  it 
from  bad  principles  and  bad  men.  Restrain  the  wrath, 
and  teach  the  folly,  of  man  !  Not  for  our  sakes,  for  we 
are  not  worthy,  but  for  the  children's  sake,  —  for  tlie 
sake  of  perishing  and  trampled  men,  —  for  the  sake  of 
the  whole  earth, — and  for  the  sake  of  the  Redeemer 
of  the  earth,  —  hear  us  and  save  us!     Amen. 


GOD,  THE  GIVER  OF  VICTORY  AND  PEACE. 

A  THANKSGIVING  SERMON, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  SEPTEMBER  18,  1862, 

KALEiaH,  N.  C. 
By  REV.  JOSEPH  M.  ATKINSON. 


»Ji--:'- 


r^1 


>=.J  w- 


COIlIlES^PONDEISrCE. 


Kaleigh,  Sept.  23rd,  1862. 
Rev.  and  Dear  Sir  : 

It  is  desired  by  a  large  portion  of  your  audience,  who  heard 
your  very  able,  eloquent  and  instructive  sermon  on  the  late  "  Thanks- 
giving day,"  Sept.  18th — that  the  discourse  should  be  printed  in 
pamphlet  form.  We  think  that  the  very  original  and  forcible  man- 
ner in  which  you  presented  the  issue  ifivolved  in  our  present  strug- 
gle, would  not  only  prove  instructive  to  the  reading  public  general- 
ly, but  that,  if  sent  to  our  soldiers  in  camp,  as  a  f?'act,  it  would  prove 
very  acceptable  to  them,  and  would  tend  to  keep  oonstantly  before 
their  minds  the  great  truth — thai  to  God  alone  belongs  the  glory  ! 
^Tis  He,  who  in  fact  fights  our  battles;  and  to  Him  should  our  thanks 
and  praises  be  ascribed.  You  will  conter  a  favor  on  us,  and  very 
many  others  of  those  who  heard  you,  if  you  will  furnish  us  with  a 
copy  of  your  discourse,  on  the  occasion  alluded  to. 

Most  respectfully, 
L.  E.  HEARTT,  R.  H.  BATTLE, 

H.  A.  BADHAM,  C.  DEWEY, 

WM.  PEACE,  J.  BROWN, 

T.  McGEE,  K.  RAYNER, 

H.  D.  TURNER,  F.  L.  ROBERTS, 

R.  E.  MADDOX. 


Raleigh,  Oct.  1st,  1862. 
Messrs.  L.  E.  Heartf,  H.  A.  Badham,  'milian  Peace  and  others. 
Gentlemen  : 

The  discourse  which  you  have  thought  proper  to  ask  for,  was 
originally  prepared  without  the   remotest  thought  of  publication. 


But  since  in  your  Judgement,  its  more  extensive  circulation  might 
be  of  service  at  this  time,  and  especially  to  our  soldiers,  I  do  not 
feel  at  liberty  to  withhold  it. 

Accept  my  thanks  for  the  very  kind  terms  in  which  the   request 
was  conveyed,  and  believe  me  to  remain. 
With  high  regard. 

Your  friend  and  brother, 

JOSEPH  M.  ATKINSON. 


,  THE  GIlfER  OF  VICTORY  AND  PEA 


uJj. 


Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh  in  tlic  morning. 
Psalm  30  ;  5  :  latter  clause. 

Whataperfect  picture  of  the  providence  of  God  and  the  experience 
of  man  !  Alternation  of  good  and  evil,  pain  and  pleasure,  light  and 
darkness,  joy  and  weeping  is  the  law  of  this  lower  world.  In  heav- 
en where  "transport  and  security  combine,"  all  is  fixed,  stable,  ever- 
lasting; the  experience  of  good  is  absolute,  unmingled,  unbounded. 
There  shall  be  no  succession,  save  of  ever-growing  felicities;  no 
change,  save  of  a  continual  rise  from  glory  to  glory. 

On  all  those  wide  extended  plains, 
Shines  one  eternal  day ; 
There  God  the  Son  forever  reigns, 
And  scatters  night  away. 

On  earth,  whether  our  state  be  one  of  joy  or  sorrow,  we  need  to 
be  reminded  of  this  glorious  prospect — in  the  one  case  to  sober,  in 
the  other  to  cheer  us.  The  mind  takes  the  colour  of  the  passing 
time,  and  thinks  it  will  ever  be  as  now  it  is,  and  fancies  it  will  al- 
ways feel  as  now  it  feels.  But  we  should  know  from  the  varied  dis- 
pensations of  God  in  the  past,  from  what  others  and  ourselves  have 
undergone,  and  from  the  repeated  testimonies  of  the  inspired  Word, 
how  false  this  estimate  of  things  ! 

This  is  signally  illustrated  in  the  recent  history  of  our  country. 
God  had  good  reason  to  send  sorrow ;  but  when  sorrow  has  done  its 
appointed  work — when,  by  the  sadness  of  the  countenance  the  heart 
has  been  made  better,  we  may  expect  the  darkened  cloud  to  with- 
draw and  a  glorious  burst  of  sunlight  to  appear,  like  that  which  even 
now 

"  Flames  in  the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky," 

flashes  its  gladdening  rays  from  east  to  west,  and   calls  our  whole 
Confederacy  to  thanksgiving  and  praise. 


It  is  in  happiest  accordance  witli  the   spontaneous   impulse  of  a 
Christian  people  that  the  honored  Chief  Magistrate  of  these  States,, 
banded  in  a  common  brotherhood  of  love,  of  interest,  of  suffering 
and  of  mercies,  has  called  us  to  grateful  ascription  and  religious  re- 
joicing. 

On  a  metaorable  occasion,  in  the  personal  history  of  our  Lord,  * 
when  the  envious  Pharisees  rebuked  the  jubilant  rejoicings  of  the 
disciples,  He  said,  if  these  should  hold  their  peace,  the  stones 
would  immediately  cry  out.  We  might  well  look  for  a  stern  and 
audible  rebuke  from  brute  insensate  things,  if  we  should  withhold 
our  thankful  tribute  on  this  day  to  the  God  of  our  salvation.  The 
Lord  hath  done  great  things  for  us,  whereof  we  are  glad.  Bless  the 
Lord,  0,  our  souls,  and  forget  not  all  His  benefits. 

At  no  distant  day  in  the  past,  a  dark  cloud  of  uncertainty,  of  dis- 
aster, of  wrath,  overhung  our  whole  Confederacy  and  discharged  its 
collected  fury  on  our  devoted  land.  A  series  of  unexpected  and 
appalling  reverses,  beginning  with  the  ill-fated  battle  of  Somerset, 
followed  in  rapid  succession  by  the  capture  of  Roanoke  Island,  the 
loss  of  Newbern,  Nashville,  and  of  various  intermediate  points,  and 
culminating  in  the  surrender  of  New  Orleans,  the  commercial  era-. 
porium  of  the  South,  the  evacuation  of  Norfolk  and  the  blowing  up 
of  the  Merrimac,  had  caused  all  faces  to  gather  blackness.  Then 
the  boldest  was  filled  with  apprehension.  The  most  sanguine  were 
tempted  to  despair.  The  head  of  every  patriot  was  bowed  in  pro- 
foundest  grief.  Shall  we  not  be  permitted  to  hope  that  the  heart  of 
every  Christian  was  bowed  in  humility,  confession  and  supplication? 
We  felt  that  vain  was  the  help  of  man,  and  we  cast  ourselves  on  the 
fatherhood  of  God.  When  brought  to  the  lowest  point  of  public 
depression  and  of  conscious  dependence,  our  deliverance  was  at  hand. 
God  poured  the  spirit  of  dauntless  heroism  into  the  hearts  of  a 
whole  people — soldiers,  legislators,  leaders,  alike.  The  generous 
resolution  was  taken  to  defend  the  Capitol  of  the  Confederacy  to  the 
last  extremity.  From  that  moment  our  prospects  began  to  brighten. 
Then  came  the  successful  repulse  of  the  enemy  at  Drury's  Bluff, 
flushed  with  anticipated  triumph  and  glorying  in  imagined  invincibil- 
ity.    Again  our  coveted  and  hated  capital  was  beleaguered  by  the 


*  Luke  19  :  40. 


most  numerous  and  best  appointed  army  of  modern  times, led  by  tbeir 
most  trusted  and  skillful  generals.  But  day  after  day  tbat  mighty  liosfc 
was  baffled  and  beaten  back,  like  the  surges  of  the  sea  raging  against 
Gibraltar.  Their  strongest  entrenchments  were  stormed.  Their 
most  costly  munitions  were  captured  or  destroyed  by  the  valor  of 
our  troops,  animated,  sustained  and  guided  by  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 
The  defence  of  Richmond  was  a  prodigy,  not  only  of  human  heroism 
but  of  Divine  might.  From  that  day  to  this,  our  march  has  been 
an  unbroken  series  of  splendid  successes,  under  the  invisible  pres- 
ence of  the  pillar  and  the  cloud.  Shall  we  not  henceforward  as- 
cribe all  glory  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  while  mindful  of  onr  inextin- 
guishable debt  of  gratitude  to  those  noble  patriots  and  martyrs  whom 
He  employed  for  our  defence  ? 

When  the  eyes  of  the  prophet's  servant  were  opened,  he  beheld 
the  mountain  filled  with  chariots  of  fire  and  horses  of  fire.  In  the 
first  great  battle  of  Cortes  against  the  Mexicans  the  enthusiastic  in- 
vaders imagined  that  they  saw  St.  James,  the  patriot  St.  of  Spain, 
leading  their  fiery  forces  on  to  victory.*  If  our  eyes  could  have 
been  unsealed  during  those  seven  day's  memorable  battles  before 
Eichmond,  we  should  doubtless  have  seen  a  more  awful  and  a  more 
glorious  spectacle.  We  should  have  seen  an  angel,  terrible  as  that 
which  smote  the  host  of  Sennacherib,  hurling  back  the  multitudin- 
ous cohorts  of  our  self  confident  invaders,  filling  their  ranks  with 
confusion,  dismay  and  death.  Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but 
joy  Cometh  in  the  morning. 

Never  in  the  history  of  mankind  has  the  wonder-working  provi- 
dence of  God  been  more  strikingly  manifest  than  in  the  successive 
phases  of  this  contest.  We  wholly  misapprehend  the  real  signifi- 
cance of  this  revolution  if  we  fail  to  discern  His  hand  and  His  coun- 
sel in  all  that  has  been  done,  or,  with  high  providence,  permitted  to 
be  done.  For  the  present,  not  joyful  but  grievous,  it  has  doubtless 
been  a  divine  agency  for  the  spiritual  educatioi\  of  our  people  in  the 
highest  lesson  of  religious  wisdom,  akin  to  that  painful  economy  by 
which  Jehovah  led  his  ancient  people  through  the  perils  of  the 
pathless  wilderness  to   the  possession  of  the  promised  land.     In  the 


*  The  same  inspiring  but  imaginary  vision,  only  in  a  form  still  more 
glorious,  was  again  vouchsafed  during  the  expulsion  from  Mexico. — 
Prescott's  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  'i.  p.  341. 


8 


successive  periods  and  phases  of  its  progress,  it  has  disappointed  all 
probable  anticipations  j  putting  to  shame  the  confident  predictions 
of  the  wise  and  vindicating  the  superior  sagacity  of  humble  piety. 
Its  principal  agents  were  themselves  even  unconscious,  before-hand, 
of  the  important  part  which  they  were  designed  to  bear  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  decrees  of  infinite  wisdom.  So  far  as  it  may  be  per- 
mitted to  man  to  interpet  it,  the  great  purpose  of  God  would  appear 
to  have  been  to  exalt  his  own  glorious  sovereignty  in  debasing 
the  pride  of  material  power  and  illustrating  the  supremacy  of  moral 
forces.  In  this  point  of  view,  its  progress  has  been  to  us  singularly 
instructive  and  cheering.  Not  only  does  it  stand  aloof  from  all 
vulgar  revolutions,  but  from  that  which  we  have  been  taught  to  re- 
gard with  almost  superstitious  veneration  as  the  most  wonderful  and 
noble  in  the  annals  of  our  race ;  that  by  which,  under  the  divine 
favor,  we  achieved  our  independence  of  the  British  crown  and  be- 
came the  freest  and  most  powerful  people  in  the  New  World.  The 
courseof  Providential  development  in  our  first  Revolution  was  es- 
sentially unlike  what  we  have  thus  far  witnessed  in  this.  Compared 
with  the  former,  the  hand  of  God  is  more  bare,  more  open,  more 
visible,  in  that  which  is  now  in  process  of  consummation.  The  per- 
sonal history  of  one  man  is  the  record  of  that  revolution.  The  por- 
tion of  the  life  of  Washington  comprehended  within  the  period,  con- 
tains and  exhausts  the  Revolution  itself.  He  was  not  only  the  type 
and  hero  of  the  Revolution,  but  what  was  silently  transacted  in  his 
thoughtful  mind  and  conceived  in  his  patriotic  heart,  and  executed 
by  his  own  individual  prowess,  constituted  the  sum  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Thus  far  at  least  there  is  no  one  man  of  whom  this  can  be 
said.  There  is  no  one  man  to  whom  the  glory  of  these  splendid 
achievements  can  be  so  eminently  ascribed.  It  is  this  circumstance 
which  especially  distinguishes  it  from  our  first  Revolution.  In  con- 
sequence of  his  undisputed  ascendancy  Washington  received  among 
us,  it  is  to  be  feared  ^the  j^lory  which  is  due  to  God  only,  and  other 
eminent  patriots  and  statesmen  of  that  day,  Henry,  IIamiltx>n,  Jef- 
ferson, Madison  and  Marshall,  were  unduly  exalted  and  relied  on. 
The  illustrous  men  of  that  generation  constitute  a  grand  Pantheon, 
each  having  his  own  proper  altar  and  his  own  particular  worshippers. 
It  should  indeed  be  to  us  a  matter  of  grateful  acknowledgement 
that  God  has  raised  up  for  ua  in  this  our  time  of  need,  able   and 


godly  leaders,  like  Lee,  Jackson,  Hill  and  others,  whose  character 
■would  confer  honor  on  any  cause,  as  their  public  services  would  shed 
lustre  on  any  age.  But,  perhaps,  it  is  well  for  us  that  there  is  no  one 
name  with  which  the  transcendent  glory  of  this  period  of  our  coun- 
try's history  is  too  exclusively  connected.  Thus  the  apparent  sphere 
of  the  Divine  operation  is  enlarged,  and  our  dependence  on  His  fa- 
vor, though  not  more  immediate  and  absolute,  is  more  conscious  and 
visible. 

In  perfect  consistency  with  this  view,  it  may  be  affirmed  as  a 
uniform  method  of  Divine  Providence,  springing,  perhaps,  from 
profound  causes  hidden  in  the  nature  of  things  and  in  the  nature  of 
man,  that  in  all  great  Revolutionary  movements,  religious  or  political, 
the  tendencies  of  the  times  should  embody  themselves  in  some  one 
heroic  individual  whom  all  men  are  content  to  take  as  the  type  and  re- 
presentative of  the  whole  period.  Thus  Luther  stands  forth  confessed 
as  the  representative  of  the  German  reformation,  Calvin  of  the  ref- 
ormation in  France,  Zwingle  of  the  Swiss,  and  Knox  of  the  Scottish 
reformation.  Passing  now  to  the  domain  of  civil  Revolution,  we  re- 
cognise at  once  Napoleon,  with  his  brilliant  endowments,  his  inde- 
fatigable power  of  bodily  endurance,  his  inexhaustible  fertility  of 
resource,  his  insatiable  thirst  of  military  glory  and  supreme  indiffer- 
ence to  human  life  as  the  incarnate  genius  of  the  great  Revolution 
in  France,  near  the  close  of  the  last  and  the  opening  of  the  present 
century.  At  the  mention  of  the  American  Revolution  every  eye 
turns  at  once  to  the  majestic  image  of  Washington,  with  his  unsul- 
lied patriotism,  his  consummate  prudence,  his  immeasurable  self- 
control,  as  the  model  of  all  natural  and  all  civil  virtues.  When  we 
come  to  our  own  day,  may  we  not  hope  that  Jackson,  the  Christian 
hero,  the  man  of  piety  and  prayer,  with  a  fervency  of  spirit,  like 
David's  in  the  sanctuary,  and  a  martial  ardour  like  David's  in  the 
field,  has  been  graciously  given  us  as  the  interpreter  and  imperson- 
ation of  the  Christian  element  and  the  Christion  consciousness  of 
this  grand,  conflict  ? 

We  cannot  but  regard  it  as  a  singular  mercy  of  God,  that  the  men 
for  the  most  part  who  are  the  chief  agents  of  Providence  in  con- 
ducting this  Revolution,  should  be  in  personal  piety,  in  such  perfect 
correspondence  with  its  religious  character;  and  that  the  recogni- 
tion of  God  in  his  incommunicable  glory  as  Supreme  Disposer  of  all 


10 


events,  should  be  so  universal  among  our  Eulers  and  people.  So 
long  as  we  shall  deeply  feel  our  dependence  on  God  alone,  and  put 
our  trust  in  Him,  He  will  favor  us,  and  our  progress  will  be  irresisti- 
ble as  the  march  of  time.  Faith  is  the  principle  of  endeavor  and 
endurance.  It  prompts  energy  and  produces  patience.  In  its  rela- 
tion to  Grod.  it  waits  and  is  dependent.  They  that  believe  shall 
not  make  haste.  It  says  to  the  subject  soul,  stand  still  and  see  the 
salvation  of  God,  In  its  relation  to  man.  it  is  daring  and  defiant; 
seemingly  desperate,  imprudent,  wild  and  reckless.  But  when  ap- 
parently most  adventurous,  it  is  in  fact  most  guarded  and  most  pru- 
dent; for  it  is  animated  by  a  sublime  enthusiasm  which  links  the 
feebleness  of  the  creature  withthealmightinessof  God.  The  great  vir- 
tue, therefore,  which  the  crisis  demands,  and,  we  trust,  has  called 
forth,  is  faith  in  God — the  perennial  source  of  patience,  courage 
and  hope. 

We  are  prone  to  rebel  against  the  dispensations  of  the  Most  High 
and  murmur  as  did  Israel  of  old.  But  how  is  faith  in  the  Divine 
Providence  yindicated  even  in  time  !  How  often  within  the  limited 
sphere  of  our  own  personal  concerns,  have  we  seen  that  our  owa 
plans  would  have  been  our  ruin,  and  that  the  events  which 
appeared  most  disastrous  when  they  occurred,  were  blessings 
in  disguise.  It  is  the  sovereign  prerogative  of  God  to  bring  good 
out  of  evil.  Thus  the  awful  catastrophe  of  our  apostacy  as  a  race  is 
made  the  occasion  of  the  eternal  salvation  of  his  elect,  and  of  afford- 
ing therein  the  most  amazing  illustration  of  His  glorious  attributes, 
to  all  intelligent  creatures,  throughout  never-ending  ages.  And 
doubtless,  each  inferior  but  to  us  perhaps,  scaTcely  less  mysterious 
evil,  as  the  rupture  oi.what  once  seemed  to  us  the  golden  chain  that 
bound  together  in  firm  concord  this  bright  sisterhood  of  States, 
and  in  place  of  amity  and  peace,  gave  us  the  alarms  and  atrocities  of 
war,  will  yet  find  means  even  out  of  this  visible  chaos,  to  cause  a 
brighter  and  a  more  beautiful  creation  to  emerge. 

In  that  magnificent  plea  of  Milton  for  the  liberty  of  unlicensed 
printing,  the  glorious  image  of  his  beloved  oountry  rises  up  before 
him  in  poetic  vision,  and  he  exclaims,  "Methinks  I  see  in  my  mind 
a  noble  and  puissant  nation,  rousing  herself  like  a  strong  man  after 
sleep  and  shaking  her  invincible  locks ;  Methinks,  I  see  her  as  an 
eagle  mewing  her  mighty  youth  and  kindling  her  undazzled  eyes  at  the 


11 


full  midday  beam  ;  purging  and  unsealing  her  long  abused  sight  a  t 
the  fountain  itself  of  heavenly  radiance."  This  picture  and  prophe- 
cy we  would  transfer  to  our  own  dear  Southern  land.  Now,  she  is 
involved  in  the  heat  and  dust  and  blood  of  the  battle  :  Hereafter, 
she  shall  repose  in  victory  and  triumph  and  peace.  Now  she  sits  as 
a  widow,  forsaken  of  the  nations  :  Hereafter  she  shall  arise,  radiant 
as  a  queen,  resplendent  as  the  day,  crowned  with  immortal  honour, 
in  favor  with  God  and  man.  Now,  she  is  oppressed,  but  not  over- 
whelmed ;  enveloped  in  flames,  but  not  consumed;  in  peril,  but  not 
appalled ;  putting  her  trust  under  the  shadowing  wings  of  the  Al- 
mighty. Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh^in  the 
morning. 

She  is  now  toilfully  learning  those  precious  lessons  which  she 
shall  teach  hereafter  to  oppressed  and  struggling  nations ;  and  to 
the  proud  and  heartless  Tyrants,  who  in  other  lands  and  in  future 
days,  may  seek  to  degrade  the  noble  and  enslave  the  free.  She  is 
now  making  for  herself  a  name  which  shall  be  gratefully  and  admi- 
ringly murmured  wherever  freedom  has  a  friend  or  the  God  of  Pro- 
vidence a  worshipper !  The  only  proper  view  of  this  Revolution,  is 
that  which  regards  it  as  the  child  of  Providence,  who  "  maketh  the 
wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him  and  the  remainder  thereof  He  restrains." 
The  ends  contemplated  by  men  and  the  actions  permitted,  not  ap- 
proved by  God,  are  in  many  cases,  very  unlike  his  ultimate  designs. 
And  we  may  say  to  our  Northern  oppressors,  as  Joseph  to  his  cruel 
brethren,  As  for  you,  ye  thought  evil  against  us,  but  God  meant 
it  unto  good.  Gen.  50  :  20.  All  that  was  affirmed,  and  more  than 
was  imagined  of  the  ulterior  aims  of  those  who  inaugurated  this 
atrocious  war,  has  been  already  done  or  plainly  indicated  already. 

Were  we  able  to  interpret  aright  the  painful  dispensations  of  the 
Almighty,  we  might  find  that  our  frightful  series  of  reverses  during 
the  winter  and  spring,  were  as  truly  merciful  in  their  intent  as  our 
recent  splendid  successes.  It  was  a  humiliating  but  needful  part  of 
our  education  as  a  people.  It  was  a  bitter  medicine,  but  we  hope  it 
wrought  a  lasting  cure.  It  taught  us  our  prostrate  dependence  on 
Him  who,  sitting  on  the  circle  of  the  Heavens,  hath  appointed  to  the 
nations  of  the  earth  the  bounds  of  their  habitation  and  rules  with 
absolute  sway  over  the  councils  of  Cabinets  and  the  event  of  battles. 
It  was  the  indispensable  condition  of  th«  exercise  of  virtues,  with- 


12 


out  which  no  character  is  complete,  whether  of  an  individual  or  a 
whole  people — virtues  less  obtrusive  and  less  glaring  than  heroic 
prowess  on  the  field  of  bloody  strife,  but  not  less  magnanimous,  less 
essential  or  less  rare — the  virtues  of  self-control,  of  patience,  of  for- 
titude and  of  hope.  It  has  served  to  exhibit  a  striking  character- 
istic of  our  people,  previously  unknown,  it  may  be,  to  themselves. 
I  mean  their  marvellous  recuperative  energy.  In  a  week  after  a  de- 
feat or  disaster,  they  have  seemed  as  resolute,  as  hopeful,  and  as 
eager  as  ever.  In  the  presence  of  terrible  calamity,  under  the  pres- 
sure of  heavy  aflB^ction  they  exclaim, 

"  All  is  not  lost;  the  unconquerable  will 
And  resolution  never  to  submit  or  yield, 
And  what  is  more,  not  to  be  overcome." 

Another  quality  conspicuously  evinced  in  the  progress  of  this 
contest  has  been  the  singular  unselfishness  of  the  great  body  of  our 
troops,  many  of  them  belonging  to  the  best  families  of  our  Southern 
country,  born  in  affluence,  nurtured  in  ease  and  honour  j  yet  enter- 
ing thfe  ranks  and  serving  with  "  proud  submission" — with  "  digni- 
fied obedience,"  under  men  in  every  way  inferior  to  themselves,  but 
invested  by  lawful  authority  for  a  temporary  purpose  with  the  right 
and  the  place  of  command.  The  true  history  of  this  war  will  show 
that  nobler  instances  of  knightly  courtesy,  of  generous  valour  and 
of  chivalrous  emprise,  have  not  been  found  among  the  best  and 
bravest  of  our  officers,  than  among  the  men  subject  to  their  authority. 

I  have  spoken  thus  far  of  the  gallantry  of  our  soldiers  and  the 
patriotism  of  our  people,  but  assuredly  not  with  the  design  of  giv- 
ing the  supreme  glory  to  them.  They  have  been  but  instruments 
in  the  hand  of  a  higher  power ;  channels  through  which  the  Divine 
goodness  has  streamed  forth  upon  us.  For  the  singular  preservation 
of  the  precious  lives  of  our  leaders  and  troops  exposed  beyond  all 
former  precedent ;  for  the  signal  victories  vouchsafed  to  our  arms 
over  an  arrogant  and  exulting  foe  ;  for  the  patriotic  unity  which  has 
animated  all  classes  and  both  sexes ;  for  the  spirit  of  moderation, 
of  firmness  and  of  humanity  which  has  marked  the  policy  and  con- 
duct of  our  rulers,  our  fervent  thanks  are  due  to  that  benign  Provi- 
dence who  alone  bestowed  and  inspired  it  all.  The  glorious  deliver- 
ances which  we  have  so  often  experienced  heretofore,  so  far  from 


13 

exhausting  tlie  Divine  bounty,  may  under  an  economy  of  grace,  be 
turned  into  an  argument  for  still  greater  mercies  hereafter.  When 
the  stripling  David  armed  only  with  a  sling  and  pebbles  from  the 
brook,  went  forth  to  meet  the  giant  of  Gath,  the  thought  of  ancient 
deliverances  kindled  his  courage.  And  David  said,  Moreover,  the 
Lord  that  delivered  me  out  of  the  paw  of  the  lion  and  out  of  the 
paw  of  the  bear.  He  will  deliver  me  out  of  the  hand  of  this  Philis- 
tine.* 

There  ought  to  be  not  the  spirit  of  carnal  rejoicing  and  self-com- 
placent boasting  among  us  now,  but  great  solemnity  of  heart  and 
great  tenderness  of  walk.  We  should  humble  ourselves  even  in  the 
hour  of  victory,  before  the  eternal  Majesty  of  Heaven  and  earth, 
whose  right  hand  and  holy  arm  hath  gotten  Him  the  victory.  If, 
by  ingratitude  and  unbelief,  we  provoke  Him  to  depart  from  us,  our 
failure  and  ruin  will  not  be  more  deserved  than  dreadful.  The 
brilliant  successes  with  which  His  favour  has  crowned  our  arms  and 
gladdened  our  hearts,  will  be  like  a  single  star  or  a  small  cluster  of 
stars  in  a  firmament  of  gloom — a  bright  chapter  in  a  volume  written 
within  and  without  in  characters  of  mourning,  lamentation  and  woe. 
This  contest  is  not  ended.  Infuriated  by  defeat,  our  enemies  are 
more  rancorous  and  inplacable  than  ever.  They  are  summoning  new 
levies  of  hundreds  of  thousands,  to  effect,  if  possible,  the  subjugation 
of  our  people,  and  will  resort  to  every  device  which  cruelty,  sharpen- 
ed by  malice  and  mortification,  can  suggest  to  effect  their  purpose. 
In  these  circumstances  we  look  to  that  Grod  who  delivered  David  and 
Israel,  and  while  we  celebrate  His  past  goodness,  hopefully  invoke 
His  future  favour.  Some  trust  in  chariots  and  some  in  horses,  but 
we  will  remember  the  name  of  the  Lord  our  Grod.  Not  unto  us,  not 
Tznto  us,  but  unto  thy  name,  give  glory  for  thy  mercy  and  for  thy 
truth's  sake.  Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh  in 
the  morning.  Abiding  in  such  a  posture  of  spirit  as  this,  may  we 
not  hope  that  what  He  hath  so  auspiciously  begun  He  will  carry  on 
to  a  glorious  consummation  ?  A  conflict  waged  in  self-defence  for 
all  that  man  holds  dear,  and  consecrated  by  the  martyr-blood  of  the 
best  men  in  these  Confederate  States — ^by  the  solemn  voice  of  all 
our  religious  convocations,  of  all  Christian  churches  and  above  all 


*1  Samuel;  17:  37: 


14 


by  the  visible  favour  of  Almighty  Power,  cannot  but  terminate  hap- 
pily. We  should  learn,  therefore,  to  exercise  a  cheerful  trust  in 
God  and  cherish  perfect  unity  among  ourselves. 

And  amid  all  the  excitements  of  war,  let  us  not  cease  to  feel 
that  a  people's  spiritual  interests  are  their  supreme  interests  ;  espe- 
cially in  a  time  of  political  convulsion,  when  so  many  moral  and  so- 
cial bounds  are  relaxed  or  broken.  He,  therefore,  who  at  this  crisis 
does  most  for  his  own  soul  and  the  souls  of  others,  does  most  for 
his  country ;  and  he  who  by  his  conduct  or  teaching  lowers  the 
standard  of  Gospel  piety,  is  an  enemy  not  only  to  religion  but  to 
liberty.  There  are  times  when  extraordinary  energies  should  be 
put  forth  by  the  servants  of  the  Most  High.  Whenever  men  are 
profoundly  agitated  by  a  political  convulsion  or  by  a  war.  such  as 
that  which  is  now  raging  throughout  our  extensive  borders,  vice 
of  all  kinds  abounds.  Satan  and  his  agents  are  active  and  vigilant. 
At  such  a  time  the  people  of  God  should  evince  a  corresponding- 
energy.  Never  were  Christians  called  to  more  diligence,  self-denial 
courage,  benevolence  and  industry  than  at  this  solemn  juncture; 
and  it  is,  at  such  a  time  as  this,  that  God  and  all  good  men  are  most 
fruitfully  active.  In  a  contest  like  this  every  man  must  serve  his 
country  according  to  his  several  ability  and  in  his  appointed  sphere. 
Every  man  must  find  the  place  and  the  duty  suited  to  him,  and  to 
which  he  is  suited.  None  can  be  more  important  than  practical  and 
prayerful  labor  for  the  religious  welfare  of  our  heroic  soldiers ;  direct- 
ly seeking  their  salvation  by  preaching  to  them — by  writing  and 
distributing  Tracts  and  Hymns  and  Bibles — by  praying  for  them — 
and  by  tender  sympathy  with  them  in  the  trials  and  temptations  to 
which  they  must  be  inevitably  exposed.  If  God  should  breathe 
over  these  Confederate  States  the  spirit  of  devotion,  of  humility,  of 
dependence  and  of  faith,  it  would  be  better  than  any  victory  in  the 
field,  however  brilliant — for  it  would  be  at  once  a  proof  of  His  favour 
and  a  pledge  of  our  prosperity. 

Instructed  by  the  calamities  of  war,  we  shall  estimate  more 
highly  the  blessings  of  peace.  We  hardly  ever  value  as  we  ought 
uninterrupted  prosperity,  or  estimate  as  we  should  any  good  while 
it  is  ours.  The  evils  of  this  trying  period  will  not  be  lost  to  us,  if  they 
shall  impress  upon  us  all  an  adecjuate  sense  of  the  preciousness  of 
peace  and  bring  the  policy  of  our  Rulers  and  the  temper  of  our  pco- 


15 


pie  into  perfect  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  peace  on 
earth,  good  will  to  men.  Such  have  been  the  gallantry  and  patriotism 
of  our  troops  in  the  field,  and  such  the  charity  and  courage  of  our  wo- 
men in  anticipating  and  ministering  to]thcir  wants, that  we  may  pursue 
our  chosen  policy  of  peace  with  all  nations  without  the  imputation 
of  effeminacy  or  cowardice.  After  the  lapse  of  a  few  years,  we  trust 
that  we  shall  look  back  upon  these  trying  times  as  on  a  troubled 
dream,  and  in  the  secure  enjoyment  of  peace  repeat,  with  even  more 
solemn  and  tender  emphasis  than  on  this  day  of  thanksgiving  and 
praise.  Weeping  may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh  in  the 
morning. 

The  martyred  dead  have  taken  possession  of  this  Southern 
soil  for  the  Southern  people.  It  was  theirs  originally,  by  the 
gift  of  God,  and  they  have  bought  it  anew  by  their  blood.  This 
land  will  be  endeared  to  us  and  to  our  posterity,  because  it  is  the 
earthly  resting-place  of  our  immortal  dead.  It  was  the  boast  of  the 
ancient  Greek,  as  his  eye  wandered  over  his  beautiful  and  beloved 
land,  that  every  hill  bore  the  tomb  of  a  hero  or  the  temple  of  a  God. 
But  more  noble  dust  mingled  not  with  the  soil  of  Attica  than 
that  which  reposes  in  the  bosom  of  our  own  dear  native  land.  It 
surely  lends  attraction  to  heaven,  viewed  with  reference  to  our  pres- 
ent constitution,  to  think  that  there  we  shall  behold  and  converse  with 
the  best  and  lovliest  we  haye  known  on  earth.  If  Socrates  could  talk 
of  transports  of  joy  at  the  prospect  of  seeing  Palamedes,  Ajax  and 
other  heroes  of  antiquity  in  a  future  world — how  should  the  Chris- 
tian feel  when  he  looks  forward  to  an  everlasting  abode,  not  a  trans- 
ient meeting  with  the  saints  of  all  ages — with  his  Christian  friends 
who  have  fallen  in  his  defence — and  with  Christ  Himself,  the  Au- 
tJior  and  Finisher  of  our  faith.  If  he  hoped  for  felicity  in  compar- 
ing his  experience  with  theirs — how  shall  we  rejoice  in  reviewing 
dispensations  of  Providence  now  impenetrably  dark,  or  imperfectly 
understood,  but  then  shining  in  the  light  of  Heaven.  The  past  and 
the  future  meet  in  the  memory  of  the  dead.  The  sweetest  and 
brightest  link  in  the  chain  that  stretches  back  over  the  past,  binds 
us  to  the  dead  ;  and  that  chain  stretches  forward  to  eternity  and 
attaches  itself  to  the  Throne  of  the  living  God.  Thus  death  joins 
on  to  life;  and  all  that  is  sacred  in  memory  connects  itself  with  all 
that  is  inspiring  in  hope.     Weeping   may  endure  for  a  night,  but 


joy  cometh  in  the  morning. 


\      ..v-/ 


<.S^J^ 


